Pictures of Early Meth 
odism in Ohio 



By 

SAMUEL W. WILLIAMS 



"I have considered the days of old, the 
years of ancient times." — Psalm lxxvii,5. 



CINCINNATI: JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 
NEW YORK: EATON AND MAINS 




Copyright, 1909, 
By Jennings and Graham 



! ©SEP / 


1909 


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CONTENTS 

I. Pioneer Life and Manners, - 9 

II. Introduction of Methodism 

Into Ohio, - 33 

III. Pioneer Methodism, - 50 

IV. The Mourners' Bench, - - 68 

V. Miami Circuit in the Early 

Days, 82 

VI. Pioneer Methodist Women, 97 

VII. A Typical Revival (Chilli- 

cothe, 1818-19, - - - - 134 

VIII. An Episode of Cincinnati 

Methodism, 1811, - - - 156 

IX. Methodism and Tammany, - 187 



CONTENTS 



X. A Methodist Law Case, - 215 

XI. Early College Days (Ohio 

Wesleyan University), - 231 

XII. The First Faculty of the 
Ohio Wesleyan Univer- 
sity, 275 



PREFACE 



The author of these Pictures has endeav- 
ored to make them true to life. They are 
a record of actual facts; and if the reader 
shall find any new information concerning 
the Church in the wilderness, or any new 
inspiration for Christian work, it is what 
the writer has himself sought for and has 
striven to present. It has been to him no 
unpleasant task to bring together and offer 
these memorials of a by-gone generation. 
Many of the old pioneers of Ohio Methodism 
he knew personally when a child, and loved. 
To their reminiscences, and especially to the 
papers left by his father, he is indebted for 
much of the information contained in these 
pages. S. W. W. 

Cincinnati. 



PICTURES OF EARLY METHODISM 
IN OHIO 



I 



PIONEER LIFE AND MANNERS 

The tide of emigration began to flow 
westward from the Atlantic provinces across 
the Alleghenies and over the Cumberland 
range of mountains as early as 1770. By 
treaty with and purchase from the Indians, 
the government became possessed of all the 
lands south of the Ohio, including Kentucky, 
Western Virginia, and Western Pennsylva- 
nia, in 1768; and many of the rich lands of 
the Upper Ohio were parceled out for boun- 
ties to the officers and soldiers who had 
served in the French and English wars. 
Settlements began to be made on the Ka- 
nawha and in Kentucky; a few were estab- 
lished along the waters of the Monongahela. 
In the Indian country there were two or 
three missionary stations planted by the 

9 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

Moravian brethren, and one or two trading 
posts; but it was not until after the Revo- 
lutionary War and the cession of Virginia's 
claims to the general government of the ter- 
ritory northwest of the Ohio River that the 
first colony was planted in that part of the 
country. This was effected at Marietta, 
April 7, 1788. The next year Cincinnati was 
founded; and before the end of the century 
a large part of Southern Ohio was occupied 
by settlers. 

Fortunately the Scioto country began to 
attract emigrants, especially from the South, 
as a large portion of it was covered with 
military warrants, located and surveyed for 
the owners residing in that part of the Union. 
The inroads of hostile Indians were now 
less to be feared. Though scouting parties 
and surveyors had partially explored the 
territory, very few clearings had been made, 
and there were still dangers to be encoun- 
tered nearly the entire length of the river 
voyage from Wheeling down. Still the in- 

10 



PIONEEE LIFE AND MANNEES 

trepid pioneers pushed on. By midsummer 
of 1794 the attacks of the Indians became 
less frequent, and were made by smaller 
bands than heretofore, owing to the fact 
that General "Wayne had invaded the hostile 
country with an overwhelming force. In 
August, 1795, the glad tidings came to the 
East that peace was made with the red man 
by the treaty of Greenville. At once an im- 
mense area was thrown open to settlement. 
Thousands of families poured in to take pos- 
session. Nearly all of them were from Penn- 
sylvania, Virginia, and the adjoining States 
on the East. 

Most of the goods transported from the 
older settlements and the manufacturing 
towns were brought across the mountains on 
pack-horses, though some came by wagons. 
Very few roads were laid out, and none 
farther west than Pittsburgh. From thence 
goods and household wares and implements 
could be carried on flatboats or in canoes 
to the nearest river landing. As the first 

11 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

settlements were on the larger streams, very 
few teams were used, and carriage by pack- 
horses was not required for long distances. 
As the country opened up, roads were laid 
out and a few log bridges built for neigh- 
borhood accommodation. Trading posts 
were ere long established and many articles 
of household necessity were kept on sale. 
Domestic goods of flax and wool were soon 
manufactured — the women doing the carding 
and spinning by hand, and often working at 
the loom. Hats, boots, shoes, harness, and 
some kinds of hardware and machinery, and 
many other articles were in process of time 
made in the pioneer towns; while mills and 
blacksmith shops were set up as soon as 
there was population enough to require them. 

The first habitations erected by the set- 
tlers were cabins of round logs, well chinked 
and daubed with clay, roofed with split clap- 
boards held in place by cross-poles fastened 
with pins, and floored, if floored at all, with 
puncheons or hewed pieces of timber notched 

12 



PIONEER LIFE AND MANNERS 

into huge sleepers laid on the ground at the 
sides. The windows were simply openings 
made by sawing out a portion of one of the 
logs, and covering the space in cold weather 
with greased paper. This was often pecked 
into holes, when snow covered the ground, 
by the half-starved birds. Glass sash, with 
lights eight by ten inches, were after a while 
introduced in the settlements along the gen- 
erally traveled thoroughfares or the navi- 
gable streams. The cabin doors were made 
of split boards, hung on wooden hinges, and 
fastened with a wooden latch lifted from the 
outside by a leather thong or string. The 
capacious fireplace, occupying nearly the en- 
tire width of one end of the cabin, was built 
of stone (bricks were an article then un- 
known in the West), and the chimney was 
constructed of split fagots or sticks piled in 
alternate courses in a stack, and plastered 
with mud to prevent their burning. The 
hearthstones, where any were laid, were 
large and afforded sufficient protection 

13 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



against the sparks which from the ample 
logs were apt to snap out. 

As there were no friction matches known 
until many years of the century had flown 
by, the primitive fathers had to depend on 
the flint and steel to start their fires. Light 
tinder was used to receive the spark, which 
was soon fanned into a flame to kindle dry 
wood. Most housekeepers kept fire alive in 
their fireplaces by covering the coals with 
ashes in the evening when cooking was done, 
or when bed-time came. It was important, 
too, to have great back-logs that would not 
burn out rapidly. Green buckeye was a fa- 
vorite timber for this purpose, as it is a 
close grained, soft wood, and retains the 
moisture of the sap for a long while. It also 
makes good coals for broiling or baking. 
Where the flint and steel were lacking, or 
the tinder was not prepared, it was neces- 
sary to borrow a shovelful of coals from the 
nearest neighbor. Sometimes fire could be 
carried with a piece of spunk or rotten wood. 

14 



PIONEER LIFE AND MANNERS 



The cabins had no cellars, though a hole 
was sometimes dug in front of the fireplace 
and covered with split or hewed boards, for 
the storage of potatoes and other roots. 
Milk and butter were preserved in spring- 
houses or in outside vaults beneath sodded 
mounds of earth. Sometimes there were 
garrets floored with boards, and reached by 
a ladder set up in one corner of the cabin. 
Here were spread beds for the children and 
occasional visitors — at first upon the floor 
itself, the ticks being filled with straw or 
shredded corn husks, and afterwards upon 
bedsteads or canvas cots. These garrets sel- 
dom contained windows, but sufficient light 
and air came through the wide chinks between 
the logs and rafters. Through these also the 
rain sometimes beat during storms, and the 
snow frequently drifted. But thick skin 
robes and heavy blankets sufficiently pro- 
tected the sleepers at night from the cold. 

The ordinary dress of the people was 
of domestic manufacture, from linsey-wool- 

15 

* 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

sey or cotton cloth, and tow linen. The 
women wore short gowns, gathered loosely 
in the waist, and reaching below the hips, 
with a quilted skirt or petticoat. The men 
wore buckskin small-clothes or trousers and 
linen hunting-shirts; sometimes entire suits 
of domestic woolen goods, drab, gray, or 
brown — their coats having brass or white- 
metal buttons about the size of a silver half- 
dollar. Both sexes at home went barefoot 
in summer; abroad, they had moccasins or 
coarse shoes, with or without stockings, ac- 
cording to the weather. 

The bread-stuffs of the pioneers were 
wheat and maize — both transported across 
the mountains until they began to raise grain 
for themselves. Of meat they had abundance 
in the wild game, much of which was cured 
by "jerking," as dry-salting was too expen- 
sive. Salt was scarce and dear, and what lit- 
tle was to be had was often dark and bitter. 
The grain was pounded in wooden mortars, 
usually the scooped-out stump of a tree, or 

16 



PIONEER LIFE AND MANNERS 



ground in a "tub-mill;" but in either case 
the meal was coarse and was commonly used 
without sifting. Of native fruits there was 
a great variety, and some of an excellent 
quality. The flavor of the strawberry has 
not been improved by cultivation, though its 
size has been greatly increased ; but the wild 
blackberry and raspberry are equal to any 
grown in the gardens. Orchards of apples 
and cherries were early set out, many of 
them seedlings; but grafted fruit was occa- 
sionally introduced from the East. 

If their fare was coarse, it was whole- 
some and good, and there was generally no 
lack. A few days' hunting at the proper 
season was sufficient to provide flesh-food 
for several months. There was abundance 
of venison in the forests, and wild turkeys 
were often seen in large flocks. Upon the 
latter it was unnecessary to spend ammuni- 
tion, as they were usually caught in traps, 
or covered pens, with the lower part of one 
side left open. Corn was strewed around, 
2 17 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



and the foolish birds entered; but not dis- 
covering a way of escape at the top, they 
never thought to retreat by the entrance at 
the bottom. Pride with them knew no fall, 
until they were slaughtered for food. If the 
turkey was young and tender, it might be 
prepared for the table by skinning it, instead 
of plucking, and roasting it on a spit before 
an open fire, catching the gravy in a drip- 
ping-pan. Stoves were, of course, unknown, 
and all the cooking was done at the open 
fire on the hearth, or out of doors. In the 
scarcity of other game, opossums were occa- 
sionally used for food. The flesh is juicy 
and has a taste resembling pork, and it is 
still a great favorite among our colored peo- 
ple. Quails were not then numerous, as they 
seem to follow civilization rather than pre- 
cede it. The streams abounded in fish of a 
good quality, and they were caught by the 
trot-line, the single hook, or the gig. This 
was the work of the boys. 

The skins of the wild beasts that were 
18 



PIONEER LIFE AND MANNERS 

shot were brought to the cabins by the hun- 
ters, and there prepared for use. Deer skins 
were tanned, and from this material were 
manufactured moccasins, and clothing for 
the men. The hair was removed by cover- 
ing them for a while with ashes and water; 
they were then rubbed with soft soap, lye, 
and the brains of the deer. All of these sub- 
stances are alkaline, and were of use in re- 
moving whatever fat or tissue might have 
adhered to the skin. Then, after lying for 
two or three days in a steeping-vat or trough, 
the skins were stretched over a smooth, round 
log, from which the bark had been removed, 
and scraped with a graining-knife. Dressing 
with the brains of the animal rendered the 
skin soft and pliable, and many of the set- 
tlers became skillful curriers. Bear skins 
were dried and used for robes, and often 
spread on the cabin floors and lofts for beds. 
Very few buffaloes were met with in Ohio, 
though when Daniel Boone and his compan- 
ions entered Kentucky they found them there 

19 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



in large numbers. Wolves were quite com- 
mon in some localities, and occasionally the 
panther's scream terrified the inhabitants of 
the wilderness; but domestic animals were 
seldom disturbed by them. 

Swine were after a while introduced 
among the pioneers and were fattened chiefly 
on wild mast. The whole Ohio Valley was 
covered with forests, and the oak, hickory, 
bitter-nut, and beech furnished all that the 
swine needed in the fall. In spring and sum- 
mer there was sufficient grazing, with other 
fodder, so that there was no necessity for 
feeding. In winter the shoats were slaugh- 
tered, and the meat not required for imme- 
diate consumption was cured for use in the 
hot weather, when venison was not in condi- 
tion, or not easily obtained. The heads and 
feet of the hogs were used to make 6 6 souse I 9 
or "head-cheese ; ? ' and the jelly obtained 
from the water in which they were boiled 
was sometimes used in cooking. 

At the table hot drinks were made with 
20 



PIONEER LIFE AND MANNERS 

sassafras root, spice-wood, sage, or sycamore 
bark. In rare instances genuine tea and cof- 
fee were to be bad; bnt to be sure of one 
or tbe otber, it was necessary for travelers 
to carry it witb tbem. Tbus Bisbop Asbury, 
being fond of tea, always carried a little 
caddy of it in bis saddle-bags, tbat be migbt 
bave a drawing of it after a bard day's ride. 
Parcbed grains of corn or rye were pounded 
up as a substitute for coffee; and tbe late 
venerable John F. Wright on one of bis 
early circuits was served with a decoction of 
roasted "nubbins." He preferred the sweet 
milk, of which his hostess had abundance, 
though the other had been prepared espe- 
cially for him. 

Of corn-meal, bread was prepared in va- 
rious ways. The simplest method, perhaps, 
was to mix the meal with salt and water into 
a stiff dough, and to bake it on the hot stones 
of the hearth swept clean — in which case it 
was called "johnny-cake." If thinly spread 
on a board or in an iron pan and set upright 

21 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

before the fire to bake, it was "hoe-cake;" 
and if mixed with eggs and baked in a Dutch 
oven, or covered skillet, it was "pone." 
-"Corn dodgers" were thick cakes, like 
wheaten rolls, in which hog's-fat or lard had 
been first mixed with the meal. Hominy was 
prepared by soaking the corn in a strong lye 
of wood-ashes to loosen the outside bran, and 
then washing it thoroughly in clear water. 
The meal was often made into mush and was 
then eaten with milk from wooden bowls or 
noggins. If fried with the jelly of meat- 
liquor, it was called by the Pennsylvania 
Dutch "suppawn," and was regarded as a 
toothsome and nourishing diet. 

The Ohio Valley being generally heavily 
timbered, the hardest work of the pioneer 
settlers was clearing the ground. The trees 
were cut down, the brush trimmed off, the 
trunks cut into lengths, and the logs rolled 
together and burned. "Log rolling" was an 
occasion of busy concern, and in this labor 
the neighbors joined together and assisted 

22 



PIONEER LIFE AND MANNERS 



one another. Girdling the trees was some- 
times practiced, especially where the ground 
was not required to be cleared immediately, 
and in the course of two or three years they 
would be dry enough to fire without chop- 
ping. Grass often sprang up in these dead- 
enings, and afforded pasturage for the stock. 

For planting, the ground was broken up 
with a wooden plow, the mold-board of which 
was edged with an iron plate. This was drawn 
by a team of horses, though occasionally 
oxen were used for the purpose, especially 
in stiff sod land. Harrowing was effected by 
drawing brush across the field, or by drags 
armed with wooden teeth. Grain was sown 
broadcast, and when ready for harvest was 
cut with the sickle or scythe, and threshed in 
small quantities with a flail. Hand-made 
fanning-mills separated the chaff from the 
grain. Corn was shelled out with the hand, 
and "husking parties' ' for stripping the 
husks from the ears were scenes of hilarity 
and good cheer. The bottle on such occa- 

23 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



sions was freely passed among the workers, 
but very few drank to excess. The festivi- 
ties, especially where persons of both sexes 
were engaged, were often prolonged to a 
late hour, and, after supper, concluded with 
a dance. 

Farmers' wives cultivated few flowers in 
their door-yards, though hollyhocks, sun- 
flowers, the tall mallow, morning-glories, and 
marygolds were frequently found. Orna- 
mental shrubs, like lilacs, rose-bushes, and 
snowballs, were sometimes planted near the 
dwellings, but these were introduced later, 
and when better roads made transportation 
from the older settlements easier. Vegeta- 
bles of the common varieties were raised, but 
tomatoes, rhubarb, egg-plant, sweet-corn, 
cauliflower, and head-lettuce, now so common, 
were then unknown. Cabbage, beans, peas, 
kale, and mustard, and a few sweet herbs, 
were the staple of the house garden, while 
turnips, potatoes, beets, and other roots were 
planted in the new clearings. Pumpkins or 

24 



PIONEER LIFE AND MANNEKS 



squashes were grown in the corn-fields, and 
a few melons and encumbers raised in the 
fence corners. 

The prevailing diseases in the new coun- 
try were of a bilious character. Tertian ague 
was universal. Consumption was common, 
and eruptive fevers were at times epidemic. 
In the treatment of these disorders the most 
heroic method was pursued. Letting blood 
and dosing heavily with calomel was followed 
with a regimen of ground barks for the se- 
verer cases, as quinine was not then in use. 
For lighter diseases, rhubarb, jalap, or salts 
and senna were favorite remedies. Pallia- 
tives were exhibited when necessary; but 
usually the fevers had a regular course, and 
in some localities they returned as punctu- 
ally every year as the hay-fever does now — 
almost to a day. The earlier practitioners of 
physic kept constantly on hand a supply of 
the drugs most in use, which they took with 
them in their saddle-bags, as they always 
rode horseback, for administering to their 

25 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

patients. The circuits of the physicians were 
large, and in one round of visits they would 
often ride forty or fifty miles. There was, 
and is, a belief that the blood needs purifying 
every spring; and for this purpose sulphur 
and treacle, or a decoction of sassafras bark 
was commonly used. If these weakened the 
system, an infusion of camomile flowers or 
wild cherry bark was taken as a tonic. Dis- 
tilled liquors, either pure or mixed, were con- 
tinually in use for the same purpose, even 
among those who were otherwise strictly 
temperate or abstemious. In the harvest 
fields, at log-rollings, burning brush, clearing 
forests and erecting cabins, and especially 
when the men were exposed to cold and wet 
and inclement weather, liquor was freely 
used, both as a prophylactic against disease 
and as a stimulant in work. We are accus- 
tomed to think that the hardy life of the pio- 
neers was conducive to health and to longev- 
ity; but those who survived to an advanced 
age were really the exceptions. Many, per- 

26 



PIONEER LIFE AND MANNERS 



haps most, of the pioneer fathers died in 
middle life. 

Education was not neglected, and both 
the general government and the territorial 
and State governments made provisions for 
schools. At first these were of a private 
character, where the teacher collected small 
fees for each scholar. When the common 
school system was introduced, the schools 
were open only during the winter months, 
when farm work was less pressing. The 
branches taught were the elementary ones, 
and rarely extended beyond reading, writing, 
and arithmetic. In a few instances, where 
the teacher was competent and the boys were 
ambitious, Latin was taught; and many a 
backwoods boy became a thorough scholar 
through the training he received in the rude 
log schoolhouses of the early days. It was in 
such schools that John P. Durbin of Ken- 
tucky, James B. Finley of Ohio, and Henry 
Ruffner of Virginia, obtained the rudiments 
of knowledge that made them masters over 

27 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



men. And the schools have grown into insti- 
tutions of refinement and culture that rival 
the universities of the Old World. The op- 
portunities of acquiring knowledge have in- 
creased as the conditions of society de- 
manded; "for whosoever hath, to him shall 
be given, and he shall have more abundance." 

Newspapers and books had a limited cir- 
culation. The first newspaper established 
west of the Allegheny Mountains was the 
Commercial Gazette of Pittsburgh, in 1786. 
At that time there were no mail facilities ex- 
tended to Pittsburgh by the United States 
government, and it was not until the fall of 
the same year that a postoffice was there 
established. A post was put on the route 
from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and an- 
other from Virginia to Bedford, the two to 
meet at Bedford. Subscribers to the paper, 
not on the line of the post, had to depend 
on the kindly offices of friends for the weekly 
budget of news, and there was no regularity 
in the delivery. As late as 1795 the con- 

28 



PIONEER LIFE AND MANNERS 

tract for carrying the mail required it to 
leave Philadelphia every Saturday at 11.30 
A. M., to be delivered in Pittsburgh the fol- 
lowing Friday at noon. Returning, it left 
Pittsburgh every Friday at 5 P. M., to be 
delivered in Philadelphia the next Friday 
at noon. Before the end of the century 
weekly papers were established at Cincin- 
nati, Lexington, and elsewhere. They were 
small in size and were not overflowing with 
news as the great dailies of the present day 
are. The liberal style of writing, in person- 
alities and criminations, was in vogue then 
as now. 

Statistics kept at signal stations and by 
individuals from the earlier years of the cen- 
tury show that the average rain-fall and 
temperature remain nearly the same ; yet the 
alternations of extreme heat and cold are 
more frequent and severe now than formerly. 
The denuding of the hills and plains of 
their timber, and the opening of a larger 
area to tillage, seem to make the droughts 

29 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

of summer and the floods of winter more 
protracted and destructive; yet in pioneer 
times the river bottoms were often submerged 
and the summer rivulets were dried up. Still 
the winters were never severe, and the tem- 
perature rarely sank as low as zero. A nie- 
terological record kept at Marietta, Ohio, 
and at Ludlow's Station near Cincinnati, be- 
tween the years 1804 and 1809 shows the 
maximum temperature for those years to be 
89° Fahr., and the minimum — 2°. Such late 
springs as we experience now at times were 
then unknown, and corn was planted and 
sprouting by the first of April, and scarcely 
ever later than the first of May. Snow sel- 
dom lay longer than three days at a time, 
and the valleys were all winter long covered 
with an excellent quality of grass, so that it 
was unnecessary to provide much fodder for 
cattle. 

At first the wild grasses were used for 
hay, but meadows were afterward seeded 
down to timothy or herd's-grass and red 

30 



PIONEER LIFE AND MANNERS 

clover. Blue-grass sprang up spontaneously. 
In moist fields red-top was abundant; but 
these grasses were better adapted for graz- 
ing than for curing as hay. Farming as a 
business was a routine of hard labor, as 
everything had to be done by hand; but the 
temptation to slip-shod agriculture was no 
greater then than now. Farm-pests were 
less numerous, and the crops of fruit were 
more certain. The peach and plum produced 
abundantly, being neither killed with frost 
nor destroyed by the weevil. The apple-moth 
left bushels of fruit in every orchard un- 
touched. The beetle that destroys our vines 
was easily subdued, and the Colorado potato- 
bug is a newcomer in the Middle and East- 
ern States. But, upon the whole, we have 
gained more and better products of the soil 
than we have lost. If our fruit crops are 
not so certain, we have them of a greater 
variety and a greater excellence. Our rail- 
roads and steam vessels bring to our marts 
the products of all climes, and we get the 

31 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



abundance of other regions to supply our 
lack. We send our orders by telegraph, and 
steeds of steam and lightning do our bid- 
ding. With all these modern achievements 
and appliances, let us not forget the begin- 
nings of our history, and the work achieved 
by the pioneers to render these things pos- 
sible. They builded and we occupy. 



32 



II 



INTRODUCTION OF METHODISM 
INTO OHIO 

When the great Carthaginian general had 
crossed the Alps and sat down with his forces 
before the gates of Rome, the very ground 
upon which his camp was located was offered 
in the city for sale; and so confident were 
the Romans of final victory and success that 
the bids made on the property were none the 
less because of the occupation of the enemy. 
With a like undaunted faith in the future, and 
with like confidence of ultimate success, the 
Colonial Congress of the United States in 
1787 organized the great Northwestern Ter- 
ritory, and invited settlers to come and oc- 
cupy it. Up to this date the only white resi- 
dents on the Northern side of the Ohio River 
3 33 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

were a few transient traders who had estab- 
lished trading-posts, perhaps half a dozen 
Moravian missionaries, and a score or two 
of struggling squatters. But now, in the face 
of hostile tribes of Indians, the pioneers be- 
gan to pour in. Heretofore nearly all the 
armed expeditions against the savages had 
resulted disastrously, or had failed to put a 
stop to their outrages; but the immigrants 
to the Western soil paused not. If one per- 
ished, ten advanced to take his place. In 
the years 1788-89, settlements were effected 
at Marietta, at the mouth of the Little Miami, 
and where Cincinnati now stands. These 
colonies grew rapidly; but it was not until 
after the subjugation of the Indians by An- 
thony Wayne, in 1794, that settlements were 
made in the interior. In that year Hamil- 
ton was laid out by Israel Ludlow; Franklin 
and Dayton were laid out in 1795, and in 
1796 Chillicothe was founded. Before the 
year 1800, there was a chain of settlements 
in Southern Ohio up the Miami Valleys as 

34 



INTRODUCTION INTO OHIO 



far north as Dayton and Xenia, and up the 
Scioto to Franklinton. 

Hard after the pioneer settlers trod the 
pioneer Methodist preachers. Almost before 
clearings were made or cabins were erected, 
and long before the whoop of the red man 
and the scream of the panther and wild-cat 
had ceased, the faithful preacher was track- 
ing his way from settlement to settlement, 
hunting after the scattered sheep of his Mas- 
ter's fold. A few families belonging to the 
Methodist societies had settled here and there 
throughout the West, and in some instances 
they were organized into classes by zealous 
local preachers ; but no effort at keeping up 
the worship and usages of the Church regu- 
larly was made until they were visited by 
the itinerant ministers. Our people were 
mostly poor, and though they raised enough 
on their farms to eat and to wear, they were 
seldom blessed with means to afford any- 
thing better than the most meager support to 
their preachers ; yet they kindly received and 

35 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



entertained them in their houses, and often 
supplied them with food and fuel when they 
could not dispense to them of their hard- 
earned money. 

The first preacher in the great West was 
Jeremiah Lambert, who traveled the Holston 
Circuit in 1783. Four years later the work 
was extended, comprehending the Nollichucky 
Circuit and the entire State of Kentucky and 
the Cumberland region. At the same time 
two new circuits were formed near the head- 
waters of the Ohio: the Clarksburg and the 
Ohio, the latter lying in Virginia between 
Wheeling and Pittsburgh. Of these, the one 
was manned by Kobert Cann and Eichard 
Pearson, the other by Charles Connaway and 
George Callanhan. A few families had 
crossed the Ohio Eiver into what was then 
generally called "the Indian Country,' ' but 
now to be known as "the Northwestern Ter- 
ritory, ' ' and for protection had built a block- 
house on the river at "Carpenter's Station." 
For some time the frontiers had been without 

36 



INTRODUCTION INTO OHIO 

alarm; but in September, 1787, the Indians 
made an inroad upon the settlement, and 
killed part of the family of Mr. McCoy. 
Some of the settlers made their escape and 
fled to the block-house, where all the families 
were soon collected for safety. In four or 
five days one of the preachers on the Ohio 
Circuit preached at the cabin of Rezin Pum- 
phrey, in Beech Bottom, Virginia, about a 
mile and a half from the station. Some eight 
or ten persons had crossed over the river 
from that place to attend the service, and at 
its conclusion earnestly besought the young 
preacher to come to the station and preach 
for them that afternoon. A council was im- 
mediately held on the subject, and it was 
deemed by the majority unsafe for him to 
go. After a few moments of deliberation, 
however, he determined for himself, and 
turning to the applicants he said: "Return, 
and make what arrangements you can; and 
if Providence permit, I will visit you at 4 
o 'clock. " "When the preacher (George Cal- 

37 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

lanhan) reached the station — a place about a 
mile above the present village of Warrenton, 
Jefferson County, Ohio — he found a congre- 
gation already assembled, including some of 
his hearers in the forenoon. Fifteen or 
twenty hardy backwoodsmen armed with 
rifles, tomahawks, and scalping-knives stood 
on the outside of the assembly as protectors. 
After service was ended, a pressing invita- 
tion was given the preacher to visit Car- 
penter's Fort again, and he cheerfully ac- 
ceded to the request. During his stay on 
the circuit, which was about four months 
longer, a number from the Ohio side of the 
river applied for admission into the society, 
and they were enrolled in a class. This was 
perhaps the first Methodist preaching in Ohio 
— certainly the first of which we have any 
definite account, though it is claimed that 
Joseph Hill had preached on Ohio soil a 
year or two previously. 

In the southwestern part of the State the 
earliest Methodist sermon was preached by 

38 



INTRODUCTION INTO OHIO 

Francis Clark, a local preacher from Dan- 
ville, Kentucky, and the pioneer of Metho- 
dism in that place. He visited Fort Wash- 
ington in 1793 ; and, like St. Paul at Athens, 
"his spirit was stirred within him" when 
he beheld the godlessness of the troops and 
the wickedness of the citizens. Through the 
intervention of a friend he obtained the priv- 
ilege of preaching in the fort, where he de- 
livered his message from God faithfully and 
fearlessly. Two years later James Smith, 
likewise a local preacher, from Richmond, 
Virginia, crossed the Ohio Eiver at Cincin- 
nati (November 15, 1795), and the next day 
preached at the house of Mr. Talbert, 
about seven miles from the city on the road 
to Hamilton. Mr. Smith was a kinsman of 
the venerable Philip Gatch, and came to Ohio 
on a prospecting tour. Mr. Talbert met him, 
and with genuine hospitality insisted on his 
staying over night at his cabin, where Mrs. 
Talbert baked him provisions for his journey. 
In the evening his host gathered a few of his 

39 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



neighbors, and Mr. Smith spoke to them from 
Luke ii, 10 — the angelic announcement to the 
shepherds of Bethlehem. To these hearers 
his words were indeed ' 1 good tidings of great 

joy." 

So far these Methodist movements in 
Ohio were sporadic, and no efforts seem to 
have been made by the traveling ministers 
to establish societies or stated preaching in 
that territory until 1798, when John Kobler, 
who had been appointed Presiding Elder on 
the Kentucky District, was directed by Bishop 
Asbury to go over the river and form a reg- 
ular circuit. Valentine Cook was at the same 
time sent from Baltimore to take Mr. Kob- 
ler 's place on the district. The two men met 
on the Holston Circuit, July 28th, and Mr. 
Kobler having given his successor all the in- 
formation he needed to prosecute the work, 
set out for his new field of labor. On August 
1st he crossed the Ohio at Columbia, a small 
village near the mouth of the Little Miami 
(now included within the corporate limits of 

40 



INTRODUCTION INTO OHIO 

Cincinnati), and the same evening he reached 
the cabin of Francis McCormick, a local 
preacher from Virginia, near Milford. Here 
he received a hearty welcome, and the next 
day, to as large a congregation as could be 
collected, he preached and read the general 
rules of the society. He also met the class 
of members which had been gathered by Mr. 
McCormick, and appointed Philip Hill the 
leader. As this was the first regularly or- 
ganized class in Ohio, it may be well to re- 
cord the names of those composing it. They 
are: Philip Hill, Ambrose Ransom, Francis 
McCormick, Joseph Gest, John Ramsey, 
Philip Gatch, Ezekiel Dimmitt, William Sal- 
ter, Philip Smyser, and their wives, with 
Jeremiah Hall, Temperance Raper, and Tom, 
a colored man, whose last name history does 
not give — in all twenty-one. Most of these 
members went from three to eight miles every 
week to attend class-meeting, and their num- 
ber speedily increased. Philip Hill was a 
model leader. It was his custom to visit his 

41 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



members three of four times a year at their 
own homes, and he always introduced his 
visits by singing and prayer ; after which he 
closely questioned all the household present 
on the subject of experimental and practical 
religion. With such watch-care there was no 
room for backsliding; and the influence of 
that society extended far and wide. Cler- 
mont County became the hive of Methodism 
in Southern Ohio. 

After spending five days in this place, Mr. 
Kobler took Francis McCormick for a guide, 
and the two proceeded up the Little Miami 
to its sources, visiting the newly formed set- 
tlements in the valleys of the Mad Eiver and 
the Great Miami, touching at Dayton, Frank- 
lin, and Hamilton, and returning to the point 
of beginning by way of Fort Washington. 
There were then at this place only a few 
log cabins, one store, and a printing office 
outside the fort; but Mr. Kobler could find 
no open door to deliver his message of sal- 
vation in what is now the center of a vast 

42 



INTRODUCTION INTO OHIO 



population. The territory which he passed 
over he formed into a two-weeks' circuit, 
with eight or ten appointments. 

Mr. Kobler remained here less than a 
year, when at the Conference which met May 
1, 1799, Lewis Hunt was appointed his suc- 
cessor. In this same year and month that 
Mr. Kobler left, Eobert Manley crossed the 
Ohio Eiver opposite Marietta, and stopped 
at the house of William McCabe on the stock- 
ade. On the following day (April 7th) he 
preached in McCabe 's cabin, and closed with 
a social prayer-meeting. He then organized 
a class of six persons, to wit: William Mc- 
Cabe, John and Samuel Protsman, and their 
wives. On the 10th of the month he visited 
Wolf Creek and Waterford, and there also 
formed classes. Thus we have two or three 
beginnings of Methodism in Ohio, and at 
points widely separated. Let us now see 
how the work was extended. 

Mr. Hunt 's health soon failed, and Henry 
Smith was sent by the Presiding Elder, Fran- 

43 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

eis Poythress, to take his place, or at least 
to relieve him in his work. Mr. Smith 
reached Milf ord September 14th, and the next 
day set out to seek Mr. Hunt. He found him 
on Mad River, near Dayton, at the cabin of 
William Hamer, who had been appointed 
leader of the first class formed in that section. 
Mr. Hunt had so far recovered his health 
as to be able to prosecute his work, and ac- 
cordingly the two preachers arranged with 
each other for Mr. Smith to proceed to the 
Scioto country, while Mr. Hunt remained in 
the Miami region. The former then pro- 
ceeded on his travels through Southern Ohio, 
preaching and forming classes, and on Oc- 
tober 1st came to the house of Colonel Joseph 
Moore, a local preacher from Kentucky, who 
had settled on Scioto Brush Creek. Here he 
found a society of Methodists already organ- 
ized by that zealous and intrepid pioneer, 
who made the first clearing in that part of 
the territory. Soon after he began his im- 
provements, neighbors flocked in; and when 

44 



IXTEODUCTIOX INTO OHIO 

Mr. Smith visited him the society had be- 
come so numerous that no private house was 
large enough to hold the congregation that 
came together for worship. In this emer- 
gency Colonel Moore gave a piece of bench 
land not far from the creek for a meeting- 
house and burying-ground : and in August, 
1800, before Mr. Smith left the circuit, the 
neighbors assembled, cut and hewed the tim- 
ber, and erected the first Methodist church 
in the Northwestern Territory. A son of 
Colonel Moore died so lately as November, 
1884, at the advanced age of ninety-four 
vears. He was a lad ten vears old when his 
father gave this ground for the church, and 
helped to haul the logs with which it was con- 
structed. In process of time the log church 
fell into decay and was abandoned. The 
members scattered and went to other places 
for worship; but recently the old place has 
been re-occupied, and a neat frame church 
has been erected in its stead — a memorial of 
the work and faith of the fathers. 

45 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

From this point Mr. Smith proceeded up 
the Scioto Valley, preaching as he went, and 
on the 14th of October he rode into Chilli- 
cothe. On the next day he preached; but it 
was not until the following July that he there 
organized the first society of Methodists. 
This became an important center in the early 
history of our Church in Ohio, and gave to 
the State at least two Methodist governors. 

In 1804 John Collins, at that date a local 
preacher residing on his farm in Clermont 
County, came to Cincinnati to purchase salt, 
and happened to enter the store of Thomas 
Carter. After making his purchases he in- 
quired whether there were any Methodists 
in the town. Mr. Carter replied that there 
were, and that he was himself one. So over- 
joyed was Mr. Collins at this unexpected in- 
formation that he threw his arms around 
Mr. Carter's neck and wept, thanking God 
for the good news. He then proposed to 
preach, and inquired whether there was any 

46 



INTRODUCTION INTO OHIO 



place where he could do so. Mr. Carter of- 
fered him a room in his own house, and at 
night he preached to a company of about 
twelve persons, with manifest power, and to 
the great delight of his hearers. Mr. Car- 
ter's residence was on Main Street near the 
river, and in one of its upper rooms were 
gathered all the Methodists that Cincinnati 
then had. 

Upon Mr. Collins 's departure the next 
morning, he promised to use his influence 
with the preachers traveling the Miami Cir- 
cuit, adjoining Cincinnati, to take that place 
in as one of the points on their work. At 
the Western Conference of 1808, held at 
Mount Gerizim, Kentucky, October 2d, Wil- 
liam Burke was made Presiding Elder of 
the Ohio District, then extending from the 
Muskingum and the Little Kanawha Rivers 
to the Great Miami, and John Sale and 
Joseph Oglesby were appointed preachers on 
the circuit named. When Mr. Sale, at the 

47 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

solicitation of Mr. Collins, visited Cincinnati 
in 1804, lie found a small class already 
formed, consisting of eight persons, but not 
regularly enrolled. He preached in a public 
house kept by George Gordon on Main Street, 
between Front and Second Streets, and after 
preaching formed the members into the first 
properly constituted class, appointing James 
Gibson leader. Eight persons composed it; 
to wit, Mr. and Mrs. St. Clair, Thomas Carter 
and wife, with their son and daughter (after- 
ward the mother of Governor Dennison of 
Ohio), and Mr. and Mrs. Gibson. The town 
was thenceforward made a preaching place, 
and was visited regularly every two weeks 
by one of the circuit preachers. There was 
no fixed place for preaching, for sometimes 
the society occupied a log schoolhouse under 
the hill near the fort; sometimes they met 
at Mr. Newcome's, on Sycamore Street; 
sometimes at Thomas Carter's; and they 
even did not despise to meet in a barn near 

48 



INTEODUCTION INTO OHIO 



the foot of Main Street. Their numbers rap- 
idly increased, and in 1806 or 1807 they built 
their first church — a stone edifice on the site 
of the present Wesley Chapel. Such was the 
introduction of Methodism into Cincinnati. 



4 



49 



Ill 



PIONEER METHODISM IN OHIO 

The Methodist pioneers of Ohio knew 
nothing of the conveniences and necessities 
of our modern life. Their homes were cabins 
of logs abont fifteen or sixteen feet square; 
but so welcome were the visits of the travel- 
ing preachers that they were freely opened 
for public worship and other religious exer- 
cises. Preaching was also had in the log 
schoolhouses, which were warmed in winter 
by great fires built in the capacious chim- 
neys. When churches were first erected there 
were no stoves except in favored localities; 
and small foot-stoves, containing a brazier 
of coals, were sometimes carried from home 
to warm those who attended meeting. At 
night the room where the people assembled 
was lighted with tallow dips stuck on tin 

50 



PIOXEEE METHODISM 

sconces, and hung about the walls. The per- 
son who led the service usually stood by a 
small table upon which was placed a single 
candle on a brass or tin candlestick. The 
candles were kept well snuffed by some offi- 
cious attendant, who usually picked off the 
burnt wick between his thumb and fingers. 

It was no uncommon thing for men and 
women to walk every week five or six miles 
to attend a class-meeting, and at night the 
same distance to a prayer-meeting, lighting 
their way through the woods with blazing 
fagots of hickory bark instead of lanterns. 
If the latter were used, they consisted of tin 
cylinders, pricked full of small holes, with a 
door on one side, through which a bit of 
candle two or three inches long might be in- 
serted. As there were no matches, the can- 
dles were lighted by holding their wicks close 
to a live coal, and blowing vigorously with 
the breath. In summer the men and boys 
often attended the meetings in their bare 
feet; and the women and girls, if they could 

51 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

afford shoes and stockings, carried them 
in their hands until they came within sight 
of the place of meeting, when they washed 
off the dust or mud in the nearest brook 
or spring, and finished their toilets, that they 
might appear more decent in company; but 
as soon as the services were over, and they 
set out on their return, their feet were again 
stripped bare, and in this condition they 
traveled ofttimes many miles. And the dis- 
tance was seldom too great or the roads too 
bad to prevent these devoted disciples from 
being in their places when the gospel was 
preached. 

Services were held on week-days as well 
as on Sunday. In a circuit of four weeks 
the preacher might have a sermon to preach 
every day at one or another point, until, at 
the close of the time, the circuit was again 
commenced, and the exercises were again 
proceeded with in the same order. When the 
preaching was by daylight, men and women 
both dropped their work to attend, and the 

52 



PIONEEE METHODISM 

advent of the circuit-rider in a neighborhood 
was the signal for a general turn-out of all 
Methodist families. Many others also at- 
tended, for all were welcome ; and the pecul- 
iar methods and doctrines of the preachers 
so commended themselves to the hearers that 
the Church continually increased in numbers. 
Methodist laymen became thoroughly indoc- 
trinated, and as they were constantly assailed 
on the tenets of their belief by religionists 
of other sects, they became able mightily to 
confound their opposers. Much of the early 
Methodist preaching was of a controversial 
character, but there were few sermons in 
which the provisions and promises of the 
gospel were not set forth. Both the preach- 
ers and the members looked for immediate 
results, nor were they disappointed. Many 
souls were converted in the use of the ordi- 
nary means of grace, at prayer-meetings, 
class-meetings, and in private prayer. The 
kingdom of God came not with observation; 
the fields were white unto the harvest. 

53 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

But the quarterly meetings, when the sac- 
raments were administered and love-feasts 
held, were the great occasions of religious 
interest among the pioneer Methodists. Per- 
sons of both sexes, when the season was fa- 
vorable and the weather warm enough, would 
come from twenty to thirty miles' distance 
■ — many on foot — and find some hospitable 
neighbor to entertain them during the con- 
tinuance of the meetings. The kind Chris- 
tian friends in whose vicinity a quarterly 
meeting was to be held were never lacking 
in such hospitality. Days beforehand they 
would begin to make ready for it. A large 
stock of provisions was laid in; the larders 
were well supplied with bread, cakes, and 
pies, while butter, eggs, fresh meats, and 
poultry were prepared against the time for 
the meeting to begin; and thus a wealthy 
member could entertain as many as fifteen 
or twenty of the welcome guests. The ven- 
erable Philip Gatch, of Clermont County, 
Ohio, makes mention of these popular meet- 

54 



PIONEER METHODISM 



ings, many of which were held in the forks 
of the Little Miami near where he resided. 
"It was a matter of astonishment," he says, 
"to see the numbers that attended. Women 
would walk twenty and even thirty miles to 
attend them. The whole care devolved on 
three families; each would have frequently 
to provide for from fifty to a hundred peo- 
ple." At night the house was given up to 
the women, who slept on pallets or beds 
strewn on the floor; the owner himself with 
his male friends sleeping in the nicely swept 
barn, being distributed around in the hay- 
mow, or on extemporary mattresses of straw 
on the threshing-floor. Sometimes canvas 
cots or stretchers were used. This was es- 
pecially the case in the summer and fall 
when the weather was mild and favorable. 

If the house where the services were held 
was not large enough to contain the congre- 
gation, the barn was sometimes fitted up for 
public worship; or, if the season admitted, 
the preacher would stand in the doorway 

55 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



and talk to the audience assembled within 
and the people standing without. 
s Fridays were always strictly observed as 
fast-days. Preaching began on Saturday 
morning at 10 or 11 o 'clock, and in the after- 
noon a short service was held, after which 
the Quarterly Conference was convened. At 
night there was again preaching, generally 
by the junior preacher of the circuit; or 
prayer-meetings were held at several con- 
venient points in the neighborhood. On Sun- 
day morning the love-feast was held, con- 
ducted by one of the preachers; and about 
11 o'clock the principal sermon of the quar- 
terly meeting was preached by the Presid- 
ing Elder, followed by a sermon, it might be, 
by one of the other preachers, and then per- 
haps by an exhortation. The sacraments of 
baptism and the Lord's Supper were usually 
administered at the close of the morning 
services, though sometimes deferred till the 
afternoon. At night there was again preach- 
ing — generally followed by prayer-meeting, 

56 



PIONEER METHODISM 



exhortation to repentance, collects for peni- 
tent seekers, and stirring hymns — not always 
rendered according to the laws of nmsical 
art, but sung with a fervor that almost lifted 
the soul to the gates of paradise. Frequently 
popular hymns not found in the regular 
hymn-book were used. 

Often on such occasions, and especially at 
the camp-meetings, the converts would be 
numbered by the score. The meeting, pro- 
tracted for several days, frequently resulted 
in numerous accessions to the Church; and 
the new members were watched over with a 
godly jealousy by the class-leaders and the 
elder brethren, so that there was little danger 
of their turning back on the way. In many 
there was a ripe Christian experience, and 
they were a great help not only to the fresh 
recruits, but to the preacher. Barely would 
a quarterly meeting occasion pass by with- 
out the mourners' bench — a means of grace 
in those days almost peculiar to the Metho- 
dists; and for weeks these occasions were 

57 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



looked to with interest and prayer by the 
faithful for the salvation of their families 
and their neighbors. 

Mammon has always been the bane of the 
Chnrch. No grand result has ever been 
achieved where the idol has been adored; 
but we must not charge covetousness against 
the fathers and acquit the sons. In pioneer 
days very little money was in circulation, 
and but small sums could be collected for the 
support of the ministry. If the will was 
present, the ability was lacking. For this 
reason the prejudice of the people against 
married preachers was exceedingly great. 
They looked upon the wife of an itinerant 
as an actual incumbrance to him and a bur- 
den to them. Nor is it much to be won- 
dered at, that, when the total allowance for 
a preacher was scarcely a hundred dollars, 
and a deficiency amounting to more than one 
half was no unusual thing, the additional ex- 
pense of a preacher's wife was a matter of 
complaint. If, in the face of all such dis- 

58 



PIONEER METHODISM 



couragement, a preacher actually did marry, 
the people threw many obstacles in his way 
for a successful ministration. They said, 
"You ought to locate; we can not support 
you;" and as a man's first social duty is to 
provide for his own, many excellent and use- 
ful preachers were compelled to relinquish 
the ministry for secular employments. Hence 
so many names, as appears from the earlier 
Minutes, were annually reported at Confer- 
ence in answer to the question, "Who are 
under a location through family concerns?" 

But the scarcity of money and the conse- 
quent penuriousness of the pioneer Metho- 
dists did not detract from their piety. They 
were strict observers of the Sabbath and re- 
frained with diligence from many customs 
which have since come into vogue. Shaving, 
brushing clothes, polishing boots and shoes, 
bathing, and laying out the garments to be 
worn the next day, were all attended to on 
Saturday evening. Very little cooking was 
done; in many families none further than 

59 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



the making of coffee for breakfast, and of 
tea, where milk was not used instead, for 
supper. 

No meal was eaten without the asking of 
a blessing or the returning of thanks. If 
the head of the family was absent, his wife 
took his place. The members of the house- 
hold always stood on their feet surrounding 
the table until this was done. Instead of a 
grace offered at the commencement of a meal, 
a stanza was occasionally sung, and thanks 
given at the conclusion. 

Family devotions were conducted night 
and morning. The entire household, includ- 
ing servants and hired hands, were expected 
to be present and join in the services, which 
consisted of reading the Scriptures, singing 
a hymn, and offering a prayer. Private de- 
votion was rarely neglected. On entering 
the place of preaching, a silent prayer was 
uttered, the head bowed down and the face 
covered. The custom of kneeling was uni- 
versally observed. Sitting during prayer- 

60 



PIONEER METHODISM 

time, and especially staring about with the 
eyes open, were regarded as unseemly and 
irreverent. In whatever other respects our 
modern worship has improved, in this re- 
spect it has sadly degenerated. The Psalm- 
ist's rule was strictly followed: "Evening 
and morning and at noon will I pray;" and 
the early Methodist memoirs are full of the 
accounts of conversions at private prayer in 
the woods, in the fields, at the barn, or in 
the bed-chamber. The case of Dr. Thomas 
Hinde, grandfather of the late Bishop Kav- 
anaugh, was by no means peculiar. Says 
the bishop : ' 1 On the place which he culti- 
vated you might often see little houses built 
of sticks of wood, and covered most usually 
with bark, with a door for entrance. His 
grandchildren, myself among the number, 
who were accustomed to joyous gambols over 
his grounds, were rather perplexed as to the 
use of these singular structures. At length 
the old doctor was overheard at his private 
prayers in one of these houses. After that 

61 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



we all called them ' Grandpa 's prayer- 
houses.' He aimed to conceal his person, 
but did not pray very silently — he could 
often be heard a considerable distance.' ' 

The deprivations suffered by the pioneer 
settlers were shared to the full by the pio- 
neer preachers. Their salary (over and 
above house rent and table and incidental ex- 
penses) was fixed at $64 a year, afterward 
increased to $80, and finally to $100, at which 
rate it remained until the General Confer- 
ence of 1856, when all reference to a fixed 
allowance was stricken from our Discipline. 
Surely, not from the love of gain or emolu- 
ment have our preachers entered the min- 
istry. At no time within the history of our 
Church could the worldly advantage have 
been any temptation; and nothing but the 
impulsive power of the Holy Ghost could 
ever have induced the preachers of the gos- 
pel to undergo the toils and privations of 
an itinerant life. A paper in the handwrit- 
ing of Bishop McKendree, presented to the 

62 



PIONEEE METHODISM 



Western Conference, shows the following ac- 
count of his receipts and expenditures in the 
year 1808: from seven Conferences the re- 
ceipts were $175; salary, $80; traveling and 
other expenses, $61.63 ; leaving $33.27, which 
the good bishop is particular in noting to 
be yet due to the Conference. Think of a 
yearly salary of $80 a year for a bishop, and 
less than $62 for his table expenses, travel- 
ing, and cost of keeping a horse ! 

Almost at the beginning of our Church 
work, the Conference raised a fund for the 
support of its superannuated members, and 
to make up deficiencies in the salary of those 
in the regular pastorate ; but even this small 
pittance was charily bestowed, and only upon 
the extremely necessitous cases. In the Min- 
utes of the old Western Conference for 1803 
is this entry: "Benjamin Lakin's Account 
[of deficiency in his salary], $28.95. But it 
appears that the circuit maintained Brother 
Lakin's wife and her beast gratis ; it is there- 
fore our opinion that it is ungenerous in 

63 



EABLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

him to bring a demand on Conference; and 
seeing that there are others more needy, it 
is our judgment that he ought not to have 
anything. Jesse Walker's Account, $165.37. 
But it appears that $76 of this is for chil- 
dren. It is our judgment that the demand 
for children be deducted, and then he is de- 
ficient $89.37. " When the royal Psalmist 
wrote, " Happy is the man that hath his 
quiver full of them," surely his prophetic 
soul saw not these days ! 

Our preachers have always been, as Pres- 
ident Wm. H. Harrison characterized them, 
"a body of men who, for zeal and fidelity 
in the discharge of the duties they under- 
take, are not exceeded by any others in the 
whole world. I have been a witness of their 
conduct in the Western country," he goes 
on to say, "for nearly forty years. They 
are men whom no labor tires, no scenes dis- 
gust, no danger frightens in the discharge 
of their duty. To gain recruits for the Mas- 
ter's service, they sedulously seek out the 

64 



PIONEEE METHODISM 



victims of vice in the abodes of misery and 
wretchedness. Their stipulated pay is barely 
sufficient to perform the service assigned 
them. If, within the period I have named, a 
traveler on the Western frontier had met a 
stranger in some obscure way, or assidu- 
ously urging his course through the intrica- 
cies of a tangled forest, his appearance staid 
and sober, and his countenance indicating 
that he was in search of some object in which 
his feelings were deeply interested — his ap- 
parel plain but entirely neat, and his little 
baggage adjusted with peculiar compactness 
— he might be almost certain that stranger 
was a Methodist preacher hurrying on to 
perform his daily task of preaching to sep- 
arate and distinct congregations : and should 
the same traveler upon approaching some 
solitary, unfurnished, and scarcely habitable 
cabin hear the praises of God chanted with 
peculiar melody, or the doctrines of the Sav- 
ior urged upon the attention of some six or 
eight individuals with the same energy and 
5 65 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



zeal that he had seen displayed in addresses 
to a crowded audience of a populous city, he 
might be certain, without inquiry, that it 
was the voice of a Methodist preacher." 

Nor did our pioneer fathers in the min- 
istry shun exposure or hardships when they 
lay in the path of duty. They were forced 
to ride to their appointments in all kinds of 
weather; in heat and cold, in drought and 
wet, in snow and sleet; to swim rivers and 
creeks swollen with rain or filled with float- 
ing ice, no house or fire at hand where to 
change or dry their wet and freezing gar- 
ments ; laboring often under a burning fever 
or shaking with the tertian ague ; sometimes 
so feeble that they could scarcely sit upon 
their beasts or stand on their feet during 
the time of their preaching — and yet cold, 
hungry, and wet, they would often ride fifteen 
or twenty miles to their appointment, and in 
that condition preach; then without rest or 
refreshment would proceed several miles fur- 
ther and preach again; and, to crown all, 

66 



PIONEER METHODISM 



would be compelled to sleep in a dirty cabin 
or a damp bed. Brave men! Abundant in 
labors, inured to poverty and toil, suffering 
from the inclemencies of the season, daring 
hardships that few for love of gain would 
ever attempt, the story of their lives reads 
like a romance, and even fiction can not sur- 
pass it. Deep and broad they laid the foun- 
dations. They wrought well, and we have 
entered into their labors. All honor be to 
their memory ! 



67 



IV 



THE MOURNERS' BENCH 

The Mourners ' Bench is a prudential 
means of grace, growing out of the necessi- 
ties of religious work during the great re- 
vivals which swept over the United States 
in the closing years of the eighteenth cen- 
tury and the beginning of the nineteenth. It 
has always been customary for saints to 
offer prayers in behalf of their friends, 
whether converted or otherwise, and Paul 
furnishes us a good example in his prayers 
for the Ephesians. Nor has this custom been 
confined to times of refreshing. The Church 
has always been alive to the wants of the 
soul, and all along the ages have recruits been 
gathered in from the world, through the per- 
sonal efforts of its individual members. But 
it is in seasons of revival, when the Divine 

68 



THE MOURNERS' BEXCH 



influence pervades entire communities, that 
the prayers of Christians, whether separate 
or united, seem to avail the most. It is 
then that sinners are convicted, penitents ob- 
tain pardon, believers are sanctified, and the 
Church is strengthened. Upon an occasion 
of this kind the Mourners ' Bench or Anxious 
Seat was introduced. It was a needed con- 
trivance for more convenient access to peni- 
tents and to avoid the interruption of the 
other exercises of the meeting. 

In the great revival meetings held in Ken- 
tucky in 1801, in which Methodists as well 
as others were sharers, the converts were 
numbered by the score. Colonel Robert Pat- 
terson, of Lexington, Kentucky, in a letter 
to the Reverend John King, of Shippensburg, 
Pennsylvania, thus describes the meeting 
held in his vicinity: 

"In order to give you a more just con- 
ception of it, suppose so large a congregation 
[several thousand persons] assembled in the 
woods ; ministers preaching day and night ; 

69 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



the camp illuminated with candles on trees; 
persons falling down and carried out of the 
crowd by those next to them, and taken to 
some covenient place where prayer is made 
for them; some psalm or hymn suitable to the 
occasion sung. If they do not recover soon, 
praying and singing is kept up, alternately ;< 
and sometimes a minister exhorts over them ; 
for generally a large group of people collect 
and stand around, paying attention to prayer, 
and joining in singing." 

Writing of the Caneridge meeting in the 
same State, held in that year, a Presbyterian 
clergyman says: 

"I saw, I suppose, one hundred persons at 
once on the ground crying for mercy, of all 
ages, from eight to sixty years. Some I had 
satisfaction in conversing with, others I had 
none ; and this was the case with many breth- 
ren, as some of them told me. When a per- 
son is struck down, he is carried by others 
out of the congregation, when some minister 
converses with him and prays for him; after- 
wards a few gather around him and sing a 
hymn suitable to his case. The whole num- 

70 



THE MOURNERS' BENCH 



ber brought to the ground under conviction 
were about one thousand, not less/' 

This meeting began on the 6th of August, 
and continued one week. The number at- 
tending it was estimated at twenty thousand 
persons, and it is supposed that three thou- 
sand fell to the ground under the mighty 
power of God. 

The venerable James Quinn, of the Ohio 
Conference, in his reminiscences of the early 
days of Methodism, says : 

"The first I ever saw or heard of the 
Mourners' Bench was in 1795 or '96 at a 
watch-night meeting held at the house of that 
mother in our Israel, the widow Mary Hen- 
thorn, near Uniontown, Pennsylvania. The 
person who conducted the meeting was that 
holy, heavenly-minded man, the Rev. Valen- 
tine Cook. . . . When he preached there 
was a sweet and almost heavenly benignity 
beaming in his countenance, presenting 
rather an unearthly attraction. It was next 
to impossible for the most heedless to re- 
main uninterested under the sound of his 



71 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



voice. Mr. Cook's subject upon this occasion 
was the qualification, duties, and awful re- 
sponsibilities of the watchman. His sermon 
was close and argumentative, giving to the 
greedy and sleepy dogs, as the prophet styles 
the avaricious and slothful watchmen or min- 
isters, their portion, observing as he passed 
along, that those who were the least laborious 
were often the most clamorous for their 
worldly gain. 

"The sermon was closed with an almost 
overwhelming exhortation, which appeared 
as if it must carry all before it. Then came 
the invitation to the mourners to come to 
the vacated seats in front of the communion 
table, to be prayed with and for. I think 
this was new, perfectly new, for the people 
appeared panic-struck; and I confess I was 
greatly moved, for it appeared to me as if 
the two worlds were coming together. Verily, 
methought the very hairs of my flesh stood 
up. He, however, was very particular in giv- 
ing the Scriptural character of a true peni- 
tent, and in the most affectionate and encour- 
aging manner invited such, and none but 
such, to come. It was an awful, yet glori- 



72 



THE MOUENEES ' BENCH 



ous time of the gracious power and presence 
of God. Several souls found peace with 
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and some 
obtained the blessing of perfect love." 

In a notice of the Eeverend Valentine 
Cook, who introduced the custom of calling 
penitent seekers to the altar, Hon. Thomas 
Scott, of Ohio, says: 

" Prior to the introduction of that prac- 
tice, it was customary for mourners to kneel 
down in whatever part of the congregation 
they might happen to be at the time they 
were seized with conviction ; and all the con- 
gregation, except such as were detailed to 
instruct and pray with the mourners, were 
directed either to remain seated or kneel 
down and pray. By pursuing this course 
much confusion was avoided, and each peni- 
tent became a nucleus around which others 
either soon kneeled or fell prostrate, till the 
cries of distress by them, in connection with 
the shouts of those who had just struggled 
into life, and others, pervaded every part of 
the assembly.'' 

73 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

When the Eeverend Stith Mead, well 
known in Virginia as one of the early preach- 
ers, whose name is as ointment ponred forth, 
was presiding elder of the Georgia District 
in 1801-03, a remarkable revival of religion 
broke out on Greensboro Circuit, North Geor- 
gia. Mr. Mead's habit had been to converse 
privately with every one whom he discovered 
to be under conviction of sin; bnt in one of 
his meetings in Liberty Chapel he found it 
impracticable to do this on account of the 
number of penitents. He therefore invited 
them forward to the front benches, so that he 
might be able to speak to them all collec- 
tively as he had done individually. After 
close and pointed questioning of each, and 
helpful instruction in seeking salvation, he 
offered prayers in their behalf, and exhorted 
them not to cease seeking until they found. 
Mr. Mead was a successful revivalist, and 
many souls were converted under his min- 
istry. 

74 



THE MOURNERS' BENCH 



In the Reminiscences of the Rev. Henry 
Boehm we find two or three paragraphs re- 
lating to the introduction of the Mourners' 
Bench among the Methodist societies. He 
says : 

"There has been some discussion as to 
the time when mourners were first invited to 
the altar for prayers, and with whom the 
custom originated. As this practice made a 
new era in the Church, and has been so 
highly honored of God, the question is one 
of interest. Dr. Bangs in his History of 
Methodism (vol. iii, p. 375) speaks of the re- 
vival in the city of New York in 1806, and 
says: ' It was during this powerful revival 
that the practice of inviting penitent sinners 
to come to the altar for prayers was first 
introduced. The honor of doing this, if I 
am rightly informed, belongs to brother 
Aaron Hunt, who resorted to it to prevent 
the confusion arising from praying for them 
in different parts of the Church at the same 
time.' This has been for years stereotyped, 
and it is interwoven into history. The doc- 

75 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



tor expressed himself cautiously, for lie said, 
'If I am rightly informed.' The truth is, he 
was not correctly informed. Aaron Hunt 
was, no doubt, the one who introduced its 
practice in New York; but it existed previ- 
ously in other places. The Eev. Henry 
Smith, of Baltimore Conference, wrote a let- 
ter to Dr. Bangs when he was editor of the 
Advocate at New York, asking that this error 
in his history might be corrected. In it he 
stated he had invited mourners to the altar 
as early as 1803, and adds, 'It was not a soli- 
tary case or a new thing, but often practiced 
with success/ 

"I know the practice commenced much 
earlier than 1806. As early as 1799, when in 
company with that eminent revivalist, Eev. 
W. P. Chandler, on Cecil Circuit, at Back 
Creek, after preaching, the doctor invited 
mourners to the altar. Nearly a score came 
forward, and twelve men experienced the for- 
giveness of sins that day, and among them 
Lawrence Lawrenson, who became one of the 
most popular and useful preachers in the 
Philadelphia Conference. That was the first 

76 



THE MOUENEES ' BENCH 



time I ever saw or heard of mourners being 
invited to the altar. 

"During the revivals on the peninsula in 
1801 and the two following years, as well as 
at the camp-meeting in 1805, it was the in- 
variable practice to invite mourners to come 
forward. The Eev. Eichard Sneath, one of 
the best of ministers, with whom I fought 
side by side the battles of the Lord, has 
thrown light upon this subject. In a letter 
to Dr. Coke, dated Milford, October 5, 1802, 
he says : ' On January 25, 1801, at St. 
George's, Philadelphia, after Mr. Cooper had 
been preaching, I invited all the mourners to 
come to the communion table that we might 
pray particularly for them. This I found to 
be useful, as it removed that shame which 
often hinders souls from coming to Christ, 
and excited them to the exercise of faith. 
About thirty professed to be converted, and 
twenty-six joined the society/ Mr. Sneath 
says also : 'In 1800 and 1801, I added on Mil- 
ford Circuit upwards of three thousand mem- 
bers.' So mightily grew the word of Grod 
and prevailed. The scenes were pentecostal. 
It is difficult to realize them now. 9 9 

77 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



The Eev. Dan Young in his Autobiog- 
raphy says : 

6 ' The first instance of getting up a Mourn- 
ers ' Bench that I ever saw, was in the early 
state of Methodism, in the town of Landaff, 
in New Hampshire. It was done by that 
flaming herald of the gospel, brother [Elijah 
E.] Sabin [in 1803]. A protracted meeting 
was held in a grove, where there were great 
manifestations of the presence and grace of 
God. There were persons in various parts 
of the assembly under conviction, as we called 
it in those days. It was impossible to attend 
advantageously to them all in this scattered 
condition, and brother Sabin adopted the 
very excellent expedient of having a bench 
prepared, and then invited all who were de- 
sirous of fleeing the wrath to come and lay- 
ing hold on eternal life, to come forward and 
be seated on the bench, which was then with- 
out a name. They came forward with a rush. 
In tones of love and words of grace he di- 
rected them to the Lamb of God. Then point- 
ing them to the fountain open for Judah and 
Jerusalem, and the blood of Christ which 
cleanses from all sin, he reminded the breth- 

78 



THE MOURNERS' BENCH 



ren of their obligation and duty to do all in 
their power by instructing the mourners, and 
by fervent prayer to God for their conver- 
sion. Then were sung those lovely lines : 

6 Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, 
Weak and wounded, sick and sore. ' 

Then upon the cold earth, and under the 
canopy of heaven, the group of weeping and 
sobbing mourners, and all the humble pious, 
solemnly bowed in the presence of God and 
wondering angels, and offered up several 
most importunate prayers for the conversion 
of mourning souls. This labor of love had 
not continued long till shouts of victory and 
joyful acclamations of ' Glory, glory, glory 
to God in the Highest V began to sound along 
the 'mourners' bench,' for so we soon learned 
to call it. Many were the trophies of di- 
vine grace, and victory seemed perching on 
every shady tree, and such a joyful meeting 
had never been in that region before. Hills 
and fertile valleys were heard re-echoing the 
songs of redemption and grace throughout 
that neighborhood. ... As far as I 
know this was the origin of the mourners' 

79 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



bench, which has since become so common in 
all revivals/' 

The Eev. Henry Smith, before referred to, 
in a letter dated November 11, 1806, speaks 
of a camp-meeting which he attended, com- 
mencing October 1st, where five hundred and 
seventy-nine persons professed converting 
grace and one hundred and eighteen sancti- 
fication. This camp-meeting was held on 
Baltimore Circuit, and the Mourners' Bench 
was in use there, as if it were a well-known 
means of grace. In front of the stand for 
preaching there was an inclosure, with posts 
and rails, through which there were three 
gaps or gateways. The ground was strewn 
with straw, and the space filled with benches. 
Guards stood at the gates to keep out all 
persons until penitents were invited forward ; 
and then, when an invitation was given, what 
might be called a rallying committee went 
out through the congregation to conduct all 
who desired the prayers of God's people to 
seats in the inclosure. Here prayers were 

80 



THE MOUENEKS' BENCH 



offered, hynins sung, and souls were eon- 
verted. 

The custom once introduced came into 
vogue everywhere among the Methodist so- 
cieties. The preachers would naturally speak 
of it to each other at their Conferences. It 
was not long until it spread from one charge 
to another. Before the first decade of the 
nineteenth century was completed it was in 
New England, in Pennsylvania and Virginia, 
in Ohio, and in the Gulf States. The ac- 
claim of souls converted at the Mourners' 
Bench was heard in the East and the West, 
in the North and the South. Other Churches 
adopted it. Among the Presbyterians, and 
Calvinists generally, it has been called "the 
Anxious Seat." "What is now known to them 
as an "Inquiry Meeting" largely takes its 
place. But wherever found, whatever its 
name, God has owned and blessed it. Of the 
myriads who are now active members of the 
Church, the vast majority have come into its 
communion from the Mourners' Bench! 
6 81 



V 



MIAMI CIRCUIT IN EARLY DAYS 

Though at the very beginning of the 
nineteenth century there had been Methodist 
preaching in Cincinnati, there was no definite 
round of work which included it as a preach- 
ing place until after 1803, in which year John 
Sale and Joseph Oglesby were appointed to 
Miami Circuit. Elisha W. Bowman had trav- 
eled the preceding Conference year over a 
part of this territory ; but neither he nor his 
successors then considered Cincinnati of suf- 
ficient importance to devote any time to it. 
At other points on the circuit the work was 
more promising. Such was the condition of 
Methodism in 1803. 

When at the instance of John Collins, Mr. 
Sale came into Cincinnati in 1804 he found a 
small class already in existence, and he im- 

82 



MIAMI CIRCUIT IN EARLY DAYS 



mediately organized it with eight members, 
Cincinnati was now made one of his regular 
appointments on a large circuit, to be filled 
once every two weeks. 

The Miami Circuit in 1804 extended from 
Cincinnati northward through the valley of 
the Little Miami River to Xenia, thence along 
Mad River to Urbana, returning by way of 
Dayton and the Great Miami to Lebanon, 
Reading, and through Mill Creek Valley to 
the place of beginning. It was then a six 
weeks 9 circuit. The more important appoint- 
ments along this route were Ward's meeting- 
house of rough beech logs on Duck Creek near 
Madisonville, Columbia, now in Cincinnati, 
Bethel or Dunhamstown, Williamsburg, 
Philip Gatch's settlement in Clermont County 
near Milford, Xenia, Robert Boggs's not far 
from Yellow Springs and Fairfield, and 
Clark's, two miles from Urbana. Two quar- 
terly meetings were arranged for on this cir- 
cuit by the presiding elder, William Burke — 
one at Ward's and the other at Boggs's. 

83 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



These accommodated nearly all the early 
Methodists on the circuit. Many of them, 
however, had to travel long distances to at- 
tend them. 

In 1805 the work was greatly enlarged, 
and extended from the Great Miami River 
to Ripley, and embraced all of Hamilton, 
Clermont, and Brown Counties, and portions 
of Warren and Butler. Mad River Circuit 
was at the same time detached from Miami, 
but the number of preaching places in the 
latter was increased for the accommodation 
of the new settlers who were now rapidly 
filling up the State. Benjamin Lakin trav- 
eled the circuit this year, and had the follow- 
ing preaching places: James Sargent's, in 
Clermont County; Bethel, Thomas Leming's, 
Crosley's, Forbes 's, Nelson's, Williamsburg, 
Collins 's, Dimmitt's, Gatch's, Hays's, Ram- 
sey's, Leonard's, Davis's, Garrettson's, Wil- 
liams's, Sackett's (afterwards changed to 
Hutchinson 's ) , McHenry 's, Cincinnati, 
Ward's, Whitaker's, Gamble's, John Sar- 

84 



MIAMI CIRCUIT IN EAELY DAYS 



gent's, Fee's, Clark's, Lebanon. This was 
probably the order in which he preached at 
these appointments. In 1807 there were 
added Todd's Fork, Jones's, McCormick's, 
and Newtown in Hamilton County — making 
thirty preaching places for a circuit of four 
weeks' travel. 

In 1803 Frederick Bonner moved from 
Virginia, and settled with his family in 
Greene County, about two miles south of 
Xenia. He was one of the first who joined 
with the Methodists in that part of Virginia 
from which he had come. He united with the 
society in 1776, and his house was a regular 
preaching place in Sussex Circuit for about 
twenty-five years. God greatly blessed the 
work at this appointment, and it has been 
thought that more souls were converted at 
Mr. Bonner's house than at any other pri- 
vate home within the whole compass of the 
work in those early times. 

On his arrival in Ohio, Mr. Bonner erected 
a cabin in an almost unbroken wilderness, 

85 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



and it was from the first a house of prayer. 
In 1804 John Sale and Joseph Oglesby, the 
preachers on Miami Circuit, took this point 
into the plan of their work, and it became 
a regular preaching place until 1809, when 
a log meeting-house was erected near where 
Union Chapel afterwards stood. 

In 1803 Bennet Maxcy, a local preacher, 
from Virginia, also settled in this neighbor- 
hood, and began preaching in a little village 
on Caesar's Creek. Here he found an old 
disciple named Isaiah McDaniel, who joy- 
fully opened his house for public worship. 
Mr. McDaniel had been a member of the 
Church for some years, but had been for a 
considerable time deprived of the privileges 
of society, for Methodism was then a thing 
almost unknown in that part of the State. 
But now there were three families who 
"feared the Lord;" and as soon as they be- 
came known to each other they formed a 
class, consisting of Frederick Bonner and 
Elizabeth his wife, and their daughter Nancy 

86 



MIAMI CIRCUIT IX EARLY DAYS 



(afterward Mrs. Sale) ; Isaiah McDaniel and 
Edith his wife ; and Bennet Maxcy and Eliza- 
beth his wife. These seven persons contin- 
ued to meet together in the name of the Lord ; 
and they saw the congregation for preaching 
becoming larger at almost every service, 
though not raanv of those who attended were 
Methodists. 

This year one of the quarterly meetings 
for the circuit was held in the woods on Mad 
River, near William Hamer's, about three 
miles above Dayton. It was not intended as 
a camp-meeting, but the people who came to 
it remained with their wagons from Friday 
till Monday, but without tents. They found 
entertainment in the houses of families re- 
siding in the vicinity. The congregation was 
anxious to hear the gospel. 

Towards the end of the year 1804, Thomas 
Perkins and Elizabeth his wife, and James 
Butler and Nancy his wife, all Methodists, 
came into the Bonner neighborhood from 
Virginia. The little society began to look 

87 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



up. The class, enlarged by these accessions, 
met regularly at Mr. Bonner's, and he be- 
came the leader. At the same time a society 
was formed at Andrew Read's, near Fair- 
field, on Mad River, where in 1805 a pro- 
tracted meeting was held in the woods. This 
meeting continued for several days, though 
there were no tents for the people who at- 
tended to sleep in at night. Much good was 
done at this meeting, the effects of which 
continued for many years. 

In the fall of 1805 there was a consider- 
able increase to the society, both by immi- 
gration and as a result of the work of the 
Lord among the settlers. Those who came 
by certificate of membership were Ann Ma- 
lone, an old mother in Israel, her two sons 
James and John Loyd, and her son-in-law 
Tinsley Heath and Anna his wife. 1 Mrs. 
Malone embraced religion in the early days 
of Methodism in Virginia, and lived to see 

i Tinsley Heath and Ms wife were the parents of Uriah 
Heath of the Ohio Conference, and grandparents of Gen. Thomas 
T. Heath, of Cincinnati. 

88 



MIAMI CIRCUIT IN EARLY DATS 



her children and many of her grandchildren 
walking in the paths of piety. About this 
time the power of divine grace was most sig- 
nally manifested in the conversion of souls, 
among whom was Moses Trader, well known 
throughout the Ohio Conference and the 
Western country as an itinerant and local 
preacher. 

The principal local preachers then living 
on the Miami Circuit were Bennet Maxcy, 
Samuel Hitt, and Joseph Tateman. 

In 1806 a camp-meeting was held two 
miles north of Xenia in a grove at or near 
Oldtown Prairie. The attendance was large, 
much good was done, and many were con- 
verted. John Sale was the presiding elder, 
and Adjet McGluire was the preacher in 
charge. There was one circumstance that 
occurred at this meeting which was long 
afterwards talked about. While Benjamin 
Lakin was in the stand preaching, a dark 
and ominous cloud arose in the west and 
threatened as driven by the wind to drench 

89 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



the congregation with rain. It advanced un- 
til it seemed to stand directly over the edge 
of the prairie on which the camp-ground was 
situated, when Mr. Lakin paused in his dis- 
course and lifted up his hands and voice in 
prayer that the storm which was threatening 
them might disperse, and that the clouds 
might be turned aside. To the astonishment 
of all, even of those who believed in the ef- 
ficacy of prayer, the clouds were driven to- 
wards the south, and not a drop of rain fell 
on the ground. 

Shortly before this time James Towler 
settled in Xenia. He had been an adherent 
of James 0 'Kelly ; but on coming to Ohio he 
opened his house for preaching and united 
with the Methodist Episcopal Church. He 
became a local preacher, but went off with 
the "Radicals" in 1829. 

There had been some time previous to 
this a small class at Robert Boggs's, near 
Yellow Springs. Mr. Boggs was a Metho- 
dist from Loudoun County, Virginia, and be- 

90 



MIAMI CIRCUIT IN EARLY DAYS 



ing one of the oldest settlers in that part of 
Ohio, his house became a home for the 
preachers and a place for preaching. 

In 1806 a camp-meeting was held near 
Milford, on or close to the grounds of Philip 
Gatch. It was well attended by the Metho- 
dists of Miami Circuit, though some of them 
had to travel two days to get there. Preach- 
ing commenced on Friday. The principal 
traveling preachers were John Sale, Ben- 
jamin Lakin, and Adjet McGuire ; and of the 
local preachers there were Philip Gatch, 
Francis McCormick, and Jesse Justice. 

The first class in Lebanon was formed in 
the house of Thomas Anderson. He was 
born in Essex County, New Jersey, in 1768, 
and came to Lebanon in 1805. Soon after- 
wards he united with the Church, and his 
house was made a preaching place for sev- 
eral years — to 1812. 

In 1808 the territory covered by the Mi- 
ami Circuit was divided, but the number of 
appointments was increased. The principal 

91 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



circuit was now called the Cincinnati Circuit. 
This name was given to it until 1815, when 
a further division was made; the appoint- 
ments in the city and immediate vicinity be- 
ing put into a circuit by themselves, and the 
rest of the circuit resuming the former name 
of Miami. 

In 1810 the Union Circuit was formed 
from the old Miami and Mad River Circuits, 
and John Collins was appointed preacher in 
charge. It covered a great part of Greene 
County and portions of Montgomery, Clark, 
Champagne, and Fayette Counties. It re- 
quired four weeks to travel over it and fill 
all the appointments. Dayton, Xenia, 
Springfield, and Urbana were the principal 
points, but large congregations assembled in 
the more rural places for preaching. 

In 1834 Madisonville Circuit was organ- 
ized, leaving Cincinnati in a circuit by itself, 
a kind of half-station, and preaching places 
were established at what are now known as 

92 



MIAMI CIRCUIT IN EARLY DAYS 

Clifton, Corryville, and Mount Auburn, all 
within the present city limits. In Clifton 
the preaching was at the house of Elijah 
Wood, and in the summer time, when the 
weather was warm and pleasant, the services 
were held in the barn. The large threshing- 
floor was swept clean, and chairs and benches 
were there placed for the accommodation of 
the worshipers. If there were not seats 
enough on the floor the children were per- 
mitted to climb into the hay-mow as a sort of 
gallery, and to sit on the hay — a capital place 
to go to sleep if the sermon was not inter- 
esting to them. A small table was set for 
the use of the preacher in reading his Scrip- 
ture lessons and in giving out the hymns for 
singing. 

In Corryville the services were held in 
the double log-cabin of Joseph Cooper, 
erected in the midst of a grove of locust trees 
and a large apple orchard, and standing on 
the east side of the Carthage road, nearly 

93 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



on the site of the present public library. Oc- 
casionally preaching was had at the house 
of Samuel Williams, on Mount Auburn 
(1835-39). Here the congregations were so 
large that the family could not supply or 
borrow chairs enough to seat all the audi- 
ence, and Mr. Williams had three benches 
with solid backs made to place in the sitting- 
room, where the services were held. Each 
bench would hold six persons. 

In Clifton and Corryville the services 
were held on Sundays in the day-time (morn- 
ing or afternoon), but on Mount Auburn 
only at night and generally on week-days. 
In addition to the regular traveling preach- 
ers of the circuit, visiting, local, or resident 
preachers were sometimes called on to offi- 
ciate. At all these points, when the season 
was favorable, the attendance was good. 

There were other places near Cincinnati 
belonging to the circuit, such as Avondale, 
East Walnut Hills, Cumminsville, Lock- 

94 



MIAMI CIRCUIT IN EARLY DAYS 

land, Montgomery, Sharon, and Spring- 
dale. Some of the ablest preachers in the 
Ohio Conference traveled this circuit, and 
the gospel became widely diffused. Metho- 
dist preaching on Mount Auburn, Corryville, 
and Clifton was discontinued about 1839, for 
Asbury Chapel in the northern liberties of 
Cincinnati, as the outlying precincts were 
called, was made a separate station about 
that time ; and the Methodists in those places 
attached themselves to it. Local classes 
were established, and there was no further 
need of Methodist preaching for their ac- 
commodation. Most of the families in the 
country owned horses and carriages, and it 
was an easy matter to drive two or three 
miles to town for church services. Nor was 
it uncommon in those days to walk that dis- 
tance to and from the house of God. 

Methodism in Cincinnati and on the cir- 
cuit was then aggressive. Every local 
preacher had appointments for preaching 

95 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



at different places on Sundays, and wher- 
ever the children could be gathered together, 
Sunday-schools were organized. These be- 
came the nucleus of mission Churches, 
which, though not so named in the Confer- 
ence Minutes, became regular stations. 



96 



VI 



PIONEER METHODIST WOMEN 

The progress and success of the Metho- 
dist movement in the West is greatly due 
to the faithful ministrations of the pioneer 
women of the Church. Of many a one it 
might be said, as was said of Mary of Beth- 
any, ' 6 She hath done what she could. 9 9 Few 
of them were supposed to be gifted with the 
ability to exhort in the public services dur- 
ing seasons of revival, though many were 
fervent in prayer for penitent seekers at the 
mourners' bench. The era of women's rights 
had not yet come; and indeed the thought 
of a woman's making public addresses or de- 
livering sermons, except, perhaps, among 
the Quakers, was preposterous. Ministerial 
rights and functions were jealously guarded. 
If an exhorter presumed to announce a text 
' 7 97 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

and deliver a discourse upon it, he was often 
regarded as invading the sacred office of 
the preacher, and his conduct subjected him 
to reproof and perhaps the withdrawal of 
his license. Even in the absence of the reg- 
ular preacher, or lack of a local minister, an 
exhorter was authorized only to exhort, not 
to preach. He might speak on any religious' 
topic, such as repentance, faith, personal 
consecration, purity of heart, or love to God, 
and it was only an exhortation; but if he 
formally based his talk upon some text or 
passage of Scripture, it became preaching. 
He was exceeding his license, and running 
before he was sent." But he might read 
from the pulpit one of Wesley's "Sermons" 
or one of Burder's "Village Sermons." 
This was not preaching, it was only reading 
a lesson. 

With women the case was still worse. 
They were expected, even required, to ' 6 keep 
silence in the churches." But if upon oc- 
casion in love-feast or general class-meeting, 

98 



PIONEEE METHODIST WOMEN 



in addition to narrating her religious expe- 
rience, some good sister moved by the Spirit 
of God undertook to exhort her neighbors 
and acquaintances to seek a deeper work of 
grace, it was quite likely that a zealous nar- 
row-minded preacher or layman would be- 
gin to "sing her down." 

But women's good works in other lines 
were not stayed. Hospitality was a leading 
virtue of the old pioneers. Every cabin was 
an inn, where belated travelers found a wel- 
come, where their beasts were stalled and 
fed, and where themselves were given a 
night's lodging and their meals. The labor 
of entertaining strangers fell mainly on the 
women of the household. They did all the 
cooking, spread the beds or pallets, waited 
on their guests, looked after their needs, 
provided them with every convenience which 
they had themselves, especially if any of 
them were women or children, and often- 
times deprived themselves of articles of com- 
fort for their benefit. They taught their 

99 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

children to wait upon them, likewise; and 
for all this care and attention very seldom 
was any compensation expected or received. 
Never was this the case if the stranger was 
a minister of the gospel. The pioneer women 
were always glad tc receive the visits of the 
itinerant preacher or missionary, and to en- 
tertain him. His religions conversation and 
his prayers were a fnll remuneration for 
their labor. And the preachers had their 
favorite stopping places, and always made it 
a point to reach them when riding around 
on their circuits. In the towns and villages 
of the State embraced in their circuit work, 
one house was usually the place where the 
preachers put up, and it became known in 
the town and elsewhere as "The Preachers' 
Home." If a new preacher was appointed 
on the circuit, he had only to inquire, on 
riding into the place, "Where is the preach- 
ers' home?" and almost any citizen, whether 
a member of the Church or not, could direct 
him. 

100 



PIONEEE METHODIST WOMEN 

In every town in the State some special 
house was thus the regular stopping place 
of the circuit preachers. Here they were 
cared for and their needs supplied. Michael 
Ellis was fond of making one such house 
his home when he came into the town to 
preach. Often in inclement weather, after 
traveling many miles on horseback, when 
he arrived weary, cold, and exhausted, he 
knew a warm welcome awaited him. "Now, 
sister," he would say to the mistress of the 
house, "make me a cup of good tea, double 
and twisted;" and he always got what he 
asked for. And the plain food there set be- 
fore him was better relished than more 
dainty food elsewhere would have been. 

But sometimes this large hospitality was 
abused. The gracious women who opened 
their doors freely to preachers were liable 
to be imposed upon by the undeserving. 
Late one Saturday afternoon an itinerant 
stranger inquired the way to the preachers' 
home in a certain town, and getting the di- 

101 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



rections, soon found the place. Here he in- 
troduced liimself as a preacher — presumably 
a Methodist — and was accordingly enter- 
tained. The owner of the house thought that 
the regular circuit preacher, who resided 
near by, might be glad to have help in his 
Sunday services, and so he went in the even- 
ing after supper to inform him that a new 
preacher was staying with him for the Sab- 
bath. The circuit minister went with the 
host to interview the stranger and to engage 
him to preach the next day. After the 
proper introductions had been made, the fol- 
lowing colloquy ensued: 

Minister — "To what Conference do you 
belong, brother V 9 

Stranger — "I am not a member of any 
Conference just at present." 

Minister— 6 0, then, you are a local 
preacher. Where is your home?" 

Stranger — "I reside in County, 

Virginia. 9 9 

102 



PIONEER METHODIST WOMEN 



Minister — "To which Quarterly Confer- 
ence are you attached? " 

Stranger — "To none. " 

Minister — "Well, if yon are not a mem- 
ber of an Annual Conference, and do not be- 
long to any Quarterly Conference, how is it 
that you preach?" 

Stranger — "I sometimes preach for the 
Baptisses." 

It was in vain, therefore, to look for help 
from this "Baptiss" brother (he must have 
been of the Hard Shell variety), and he was 
not invited to preach. But he spent the Sab- 
bath in the town, and on Monday morning 
took his leave, without even offering to pay 
for his entertainment, though he certainly 
knew that he had no claim upon it. And yet, 
a few days after, on returning homeward 
from his journey, undertaken for private 
business solely, he had the presumption to 
call again at the preachers 9 home. This time 
he did not ask to stay over night. He only 
said. 6 6 Sister, if you will give me a little bite 

103 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



of dinner, I will travel further to-day." The 
sister was glad enough to take him at his 
word, without insisting on his staying. He 
had probably sponged his entertainment in 
like manner along his entire route. 

Of the many pioneer women who were 
thus " given to hospitality" and were abun- 
dant in labors religious and domestic, all are 
worthy of record, especially in the local 
Church histories ; and yet how few are known 
outside of their own family circles. The 
world rushes on, and in a single generation 
society does not know the generous deeds of 
our foremothers. Yet the good example set 
by them ought to be a stimulant in the lives 
of their successors. "Follow me," says 
Saint Paul, "as I follow Christ;" and our 
pioneer ancestors are saying to us the same 
thing. Only a few names can be mentioned, 
but they are a type of all. Our sketches must 
be like an artist's "lay-out" for a portrait 
or a landscape; the readers must fill in the 
details, each for himself. 

104 



PIONEER METHODIST WOMEN 

Charity Hendershott was born in New 
Jersey, December 25, 1756. Her parents 
were of German descent, and her maiden 
name was Dils. At the age of twenty-one 
she heard Freeborn Garrettson preach in 
her father's neighborhood, and conviction 
of her sinfulness and need of salvation seized 
upon her. She immediately resolved to lead 
a new life, and united with the Methodists. 
She now became an attendant upon the min- 
istrations of such men as Benjamin Abbott, 
Joseph Everett, William Watters, and Jesse 
Lee, and was one of the first-fruits of Meth- 
odism in her native State. 

In 1788 her father's family migrated to 
Kentucky, and settled in the wilderness. It 
was not long "until the gospel was intro- 
duced and the pioneer preachers with their 
divine messages were tracking their way 
from settlement to settlement. Here she 
was married, and the doors of her humble 
home were at once gladly thrown open for 
the reception of the itinerant preachers. 

105 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



There they were gladly welcomed, and an 
altar was erected for family and public wor- 
ship. 

In 1806 Mrs. Hendershott removed to 
Ohio, and settled on the Great Miami River 
at Piqna. Here she was foremost in plant- 
ing the gospel standard among the early set- 
tlers, and used her zeal and assiduity in 
building up the Church in that place. She 
always welcomed the visits of the circuit 
preachers; and her cabin here, as it was in 
Kentucky, was a house of prayer. To pro- 
mote the interests of religion and the wel- 
fare of the Church she often made extraor- 
dinary sacrifices of her own comfort and 
ease. 

She possessed naturally a vivacious dis- 
position, which never led her into frivolity, 
as it was always chastened by grace. She 
had had few opportunities for an education 
in her childhood, but was well taught in the 
elementary branches of learning. She was 
deeply read in the Scriptures, from which 

106 



PIONEER METHODIST WOMEN 

she could quote passage after passage with 
aptness and facility when occasion required. 
To fluency of expression she added vigor of 
thought, and by well chosen arguments was 
able to confute the objections of gainsayers 
to the plan of salvation. Profanity in her 
presence rarely escaped without rebuke, 
sometimes in circumstances very embar- 
rassing ; especially when her house was a re- 
sort for officers and soldiers during the war 
with England, in 1812-13. Any flagrant 
breach of decorum on their part was sure to 
be met with reproving severity of eye or 
tongue. 

In May, 1829, she suffered a stroke of 
paralysis, from which she never recovered; 
and on March 13, 1833, she died at the resi- 
dence of her son in Springfield. She re- 
tained to the last that calm, composed, and 
settled peace of mind which through life she 
had enjoyed. During the whole of her pro- 
tracted and painful affliction not a single 
murmur at the divine dispensation was ever 

107 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

known to escape her lips. Her motto was, 
i 6 The will of the Lord be done. ' ? She seemed 
ever to act with an eye single to the glory 
of God, and prayer and praise were her vital 
breath as long as she lived. One who knew 
her well says of her: "She was a great light, 
and I might add, almost a polar star for the 
preachers. ' ' 

Rachel McDowell was the daughter of 
James and Mary McClintick, and was born 
in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, December 25, 1771. 
Her father was an officer in the Revolution- 
ary War, and served during its whole period, 
in which he lost all his property. When she 
was eighteen years old she was awakened 
and converted under the ministry of the first 
Methodist preachers who visited Shippens- 
burg, twenty miles southwest of Carlisle, 
whither her father's family had removed. 
A Methodist class was soon formed in that 
town, in the midst of a large Presbyterian 
element, and to it she attached herself. This 
little flock was greatly persecuted and de- 

108 



PIONEER METHODIST WOMEN 



spised by the Calvinists as a set of wild, de- 
luded fanatics. But none of these things 
moved her. Her piety was deep and fer- 
vent, and in the prayer-meetings of the little 
society she often prayed and exhorted. 

In 1795 she was married to William Mc- 
Dowell, who had labored successfully as an 
itinerant preacher for seven years, but this 
year located, perhaps in view of his mar- 
riage. The small sums paid for ministerial 
support on the circuits were not enough to 
keep him and his wife, and heretofore his 
horse and necessary articles of clothing had 
been supplied by his brother. They soon re- 
moved to Georgia, where he engaged in mer- 
cantile enterprises, and prospered. Here 
their house was an asylum for the mission- 
aries of the Cross, for the way-worn trav- 
eler, and for all who called on the name of 
the Lord out of a pure heart. They after- 
wards settled in Newtown, Frederick County, 
Virginia, where they resided until 1806; but 
not wishing to bring up their children under 

109 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

the influences of slavery, they removed to 
Chillicothe, Ohio, where Mr. McDowell 
bought property. Here he resumed the mer- 
cantile business in partnership with his 
brother-in-law, James MeClintick, who mar- 
ried about 1810 and took up his residence in 
the store building. His partnership gave 
Mr. McDowell leisure to manage his farm in 
the vicinity of the town, and to pursue a 
private course in medicine, for which he al- 
ways had a taste. He was induced by some 
of his friends and neighbors, to whom he 
sometimes administered remedies for sick- 
ness, to complete his medical studies by at- 
tending the lectures of Dr. Benjamin Eush, 
Dr. Philip S. Physick, and others, in Phila- 
delphia. After his graduation as a regular 
doctor of medicine he returned to engage in 
the practice of his profession in Chillicothe, 
and gave up his mercantile business. 

Both in Georgia and in Virginia Mrs. 
McDowell had freely opened her house for 
the reception of the itinerant preachers, and 

110 



PIONEER METHODIST WOMEN 

was glad to have them stay with her when 
they were making the rounds of their cir- 
cuit. On her removal to Ohio she abounded 
in like good works, and was unstinted in her 
charities to the poor and destitute. She 
used her best endeavors to promote the cause 
of religion and morality, and took an active 
part in Church work. In prayer-meetings 
she was often called on to lead in prayer, in 
which exercise she was peculiarly gifted. 
Few surpassed her in appropriateness of 
language and adaptation, in unction and in 
power. For many years she was the leader 
of a large class of women, for which posi- 
tion she was well qualified, both by nature 
and by grace. In the absence of her hus- 
band she kept up family worship; and she 
was a constant reader of the Word of God. 
In accurate and comprehensive knowledge 
of the doctrines of Christianity, as taught 
by the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in 
explaining and defending them, and also in 
deep and thorough knowledge of Christian 

111 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



experience, she had few equals among those 
of her own sex, nor indeed many superiors 
in the ministry. 

In 1831 Mrs. McDowell's health failed, 
and she was soon laid upon a dying bed. A 
few days before her death she desired to 
receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 
This, to her great comfort, was administered 
to her and a few of her friends in her sick- 
room by the Eev. John Collins. A short 
time before her departure, which she felt to 
be near at hand, her husband, taking her 
hand, said, "My dear, you are going soon 
to leave us; tell me, is your way clear?' 1 
"0 yes," she replied, "very clear. I have 
been striving in my poor way to serve the 
Lord for forty years, and He will not now, 
forsake me. I feel so united to Christ that 
I know 4 He will not live in glory and leave 
me behind.' His merit is my only plea; He 
is my all in all, and my eternal all ! " A few 
minutes before she breathed her last she said 
to her husband, "Be holy;" and then added, 

112 



PIONEER METHODIST WOMEN 



"The Lord bless my children!" Wearied 
with life's struggle, she gently fell asleep in 
Jesus. 

Jane Trimble was born March 15, 1755, 
in Augusta County, Virginia. She was the 
eldest daughter of James and Margaret 
Allen, whose ancestors had come from the 
Old World in the seventeenth century. They 
were Protestants, members of the Scotch- 
Irish Presbyterian Church. Some of the de- 
scendants of the family took an active part 
in the Revolutionary War, and her father 
lost two brothers in battle. She joined the 
Presbyterian Church at an early age, and 
though her opportunities for obtaining an 
education were limited, she learned to read 
and write with ease, and could do so before 
she was seven years old. She memorized the 
four Gospels, and could recite long passages 
from Milton, Cowper, Young, and Thomson. 
She was fond of reading, and often had her 
book open before her eyes when she was 
engaged in knitting or spinning. 
8 113 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

Near the close of the Revolutionary "War 
she was married to Captain James Trimble, 
of Augusta County, whose father had been 
killed by the Indians in 1778. He himself 
had served in the field during most of the 
war. In 1784 they migrated with a small 
company of new settlers to Kentucky. After 
encountering many hardships and perils, 
both from the savage Indians and the wild 
beasts, and enduring all the inclemencies of 
the late autumn, they settled near Lexing- 
ton. Kentucky in that part of the State was 
then a vast canebrake, and the cane stood 
eight or ten feet high. This had to be cut 
out with almost as much labor as clearing 
forest land, before the ground could be cul- 
tivated. 

A rude log cabin was soon built, covered 
with clapboards, floored with split punch- 
eons, and the chimney constructed of stone, 
mud, and timber. The house was chinked 
and daubed before the severe cold weather 
set in. A shelter was put up for the stock, 

114 



PIOXEEE METHODIST WOMEN 



and the young cane furnished sufficient prov- 
ender for the horses. Deer, bears, and buf- 
faloes were abundant, and supplied the table 
with fresh meats; while corn for bread was 
procured at the stations until they could raise 
a crop for themselves. 

The only drawback they experienced was 
the lack of neighbors and Church and school 
privileges. But Mrs. Trimble attended to the 
education of her children, and did not neg- 
lect their moral and religious training. 
AVhen the country filled up with newcomers, 
she invited the children and servants of her 
neighbors to attend a Sunday-school con- 
ducted by herself at her own home. In the 
absence of her husband she had family wor- 
shij^ every night and morning. This was a 
service in which she delighted. 

When the Presbyterian Church was or- 
ganized at Lexington, about the year 1788, 
by Adam Eankin, she and her husband united 
with it, and for several years they there en- 
joyed the ministrations of God's word. In 

115 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

1792 three missionaries from the East vis- 
ited Kentucky, Cary Allen, Robert Marshall, 
and Mr. Calhoun, all popular and able 
preachers. The first-named was the most 
zealous of the three. He had been converted 
in a Methodist revival, and gloried in re- 
ligious awakenings and was successful in pro- 
moting them. Through his instrumentality 
Mrs. Trimble was led to see that her piety 
was more in form than in spirit, and was 
brought to examine more carefully the 
grounds of her faith. She determined to 
know for herself all about the personal work 
wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit, nor 
did she rest until she could say and feel for 
herself : 

"My God is reconciled, 

His pardoning voice I hear ; 
He owns me for His child, 
I can no longer fear." 

In 1801 Mrs. Trimble accompanied her 
husband to the great Cane Ridge camp-meet- 
ing, forty miles distant from their home. 

116 



PIONEEE METHODIST WOMEN 



They took their road wagon, well filled with 
provisions for a fortnight, and their children 
with them. They all shared in the spiritual 
advantages which the meeting afforded. 
Laymen and ministers united in leading sin- 
ners to Christ, and in this delightful employ- 
ment Mrs. Trimble took part. 

About this time Captain Trimble and his 
wife were induced by one of their kinsmen 
in Virginia, who had embraced the Metho- 
dist faith, to read Fletcher's "Checks." 
They obtained a copy from a local preacher, 
and did so. Both became thoroughly con- 
vinced of the truth of the doctrines of Meth- 
odism as opposed to those of Calvinism. 
Soon after Mrs. Trimble heard a sermon by 
Nathanael Harris, one of the early Metho- 
dist itinerants in Kentucky; and, introduc- 
ing herself, invited him to come and preach 
at her house. An appointment was made, 
and Mr. Harris was there to fill it. At the 
request of Captain and Mrs. Trimble, a 
Methodist society was immediately organ- 

117 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



ized, including themselves as members, and 
their house was thenceforward used as a 
preaching place. Mrs. Trimble now took an 
active part in building up the Methodist 
Church in Kentucky and in still further pro- 
moting the cause of God. 

This change in their religious faith soon 
began to develop icself in another form. 
They became convinced that slavery was not 
right, that it was contrary to the gospel of 
Christ and inconsistent with their profession 
of religion; and they took measures to set 
at liberty the slaves that belonged to them. 
After some delay on the part of the court, 
to which Captain Trimble sent the deed of 
manumission, in admitting it to record, they 
succeeded in accomplishing their endeavor. 
But they now felt that it was better for them- 
selves and their children to be free alto- 
gether from the influences of slavery, and 
determined to seek a home in a free State. 
Accordingly in 1804, Captain Trimble hav- 
ing bought lands on Clear Creek, Highland 

118 



PIONEER METHODIST WOMEN 

County, Ohio, about three miles north of 
Hillsboro, went to his new purchase. Here, 
with some help which he took with him, he 
cleared ten acres of ground, put up a neat 
double log cabin, planted an orchard, and 
then returned to Kentucky to prepare his 
family for removal. 

But though man proposes, God disposes. 
Captain Trimble was taken down with sick- 
ness soon after his return, and in a few days 
died. His death was a terrible blow to his 
family, but he left to his wife and eight chil- 
dren, six of whom were sons, the memory 
of a good example. The preparations for 
removal, however, did not stop. His son 
Allen, who was now of age, relieved his 
mother of many of the business cares of the 
family, and much of the work of settling up 
the estate fell into his hands ; but it was not 
until the autumn of 1805 that they were 
ready to move. After a journey of six days, 
over a broken and hilly country, they reached 
their new home. Upon entering its doors, 

119 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

Mrs. Trimble dedicated it to the worship of 
Almighty God. The family joined in a hymn 
of praise, then she invoked the divine bless- 
ing upon her house and household, and be- 
sought the Lord to send the missionary of 
the Cross to her lonely habitation. Ever 
after, that house was a house of prayer. 

Occasionally she was privileged to hear 
the preaching of the gospel, and when a 
Methodist society was formed in Hillsboro 
she united with it. This was the foundation 
of Methodism in that place. In 1811 she 
went to the town to reside with her son Allen, 
and with him she spent the remaining years, 
which were many, of her life. After making 
her home in Hillsboro she collected the chil- 
dren of the town on Sunday mornings and 
afternoons and instructed them out of God's 
Holy Book. Other religious people soon 
came to her help, and long before the Church 
had established a Sunday-school these faith- 
ful teachers were giving the young lessons 
of piety and devotion. At other times she 

120 



PIONEER METHODIST WOMEN 

sought out the poor and relieved their wants ; 
she waited on the sick, and sometimes visited 
the prisoners in jail. She was always ready 
for any and every good work, and was es- 
pecially interested in the salvation of those 
around her. In several visits which she 
made to her old home in Virginia she spoke 
plainly but affectionately to her relatives 
about the interests of their souls, and strove 
to show them the need and privilege of a 
deeper work of grace. On one occasion she 
even began a prayer-meeting for this end in 
the home of her sister. Her efforts were not 
in vain. The Presbyterian minister gave her 
his aid, and a revival influence there begun 
spread until it pervaded the entire commu- 
nity, and embraced within its saving effects 
most of Mrs. Trimble's friends. 

She lived to see her sons attain to honor 
and influence, and all her children well set- 
tled in life. Her son Colonel William A. 
Trimble represented the State of Ohio in the 
United States Senate; Allen was governor; 

121 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

Gary A. became a lieutenant in the regular 
army, and Cyrus a practicing physician in 
Chillicothe. Her grandson Joseph M. Trim- 
ble was for many years a leading member of 
the Ohio Conference, and occupied some of 
the best positions in the Church— presiding 
elder, missionary secretary, trustee of the 
Ohio Wesleyan University, for long presi- 
dent of the board, professor in Augusta Col- 
lege, and secretary both of his own and the 
General Conference. 

Mrs. Trimble's life was prolonged until 
she saw her ninety-fourth year. Her last 
days were spent in an atmosphere of perfect 
love and serenity. She lived in intimate 
communion and fellowship with the Divine 
Spirit ; and though she sometimes forgot the 
names of her nearest friends, even those 
of her own children, she never forgot the 
name of her Savior, and her countenance 
would brighten and her eyes kindle when she 
spoke of Him. She outlived most of her 
children, but she anticipated a joyful reunion 

122 



PIONEEE METHODIST WOMEN 



with them, her husband, and her daughters- 
in-law, in that world where farewells and 
partings are known no more. 

Elizabeth Kenton was the daughter of 
Stephen and Elizabeth (Clelland) Jarboe. 
Her father was a native of France, who came 
to this country and settled in Maryland. Her 
mother was a well educated woman, deeply 
pious, and a communicant in the Presbyte- 
rian Church. AYhen Elizabeth was seventeen 
years of age her parents moved to Mason 
County, Kentucky. This was in the year 
1796. Here she became acquainted with Gen- 
eral Simon Kenton, who was then a widower, 
with four children. General Kenton admired 
her personal bearing and appearance, and 
loved her. She on her part, like Desdemona 
listening to the adventures of Othello the 
Moor, was fond of hearing the general tell 
the story of his exploits; and when he pro- 
posed marriage to her she accepted his pro- 
posal, and they were married at Kenton's 

123 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



Station by the Eev. William Wood, of the 
Baptist Church, in 1798. 

It was a great undertaking for young 
Mrs. Kenton to take charge of a large family 
at the very outset of her married life, but 
she was equal to the task. Pioneer women 
were competent for anything. Their life in 
the wilderness was never one of luxury or 
of ease, it was one of labor and hardship; 
yet they endured, having the promise of the 
life that now is, and many, like Mrs. Kenton, 
having also that of the life to come. She 
had been trained in all domestic duties by 
her parents, and she had been taught the 
elementary branches of learning. She knew 
how to read and write and cipher well — be- 
yond which few girls, and boys, too, in the 
new settlements were able to go. Her hus- 
band had no schooling whatever, except that 
he could read and write a little; but he was 
a man of wide observation and possessed a 
fund of good sense and practical knowledge, 
which he turned to the best account in his 

124 



PIONEER METHODIST WOMEN 



expeditions among savage tribes and through 
the untrodden forests of the West. 

A few months after their marriage Gen- 
eral Kenton and his wife removed to the 
State of Ohio, and in the spring of 1799 set- 
tled in what was known as the Mad River 
Country, about four miles north of Spring- 
field. Here the general built two log cabins, 
where he established his own family and his 
two widowed mothers-in-law with their 
households, besides some colored people. 
The latchstring of his cabin was always out, 
and a welcome was ready for all who sought 
his hospitality. Though the Indians had been 
placated by the treaty of Greenville, there 
were still many of them roaming about on 
the borders of the settlements, and some of 
them visited the cabins of the Kentons. On 
one occasion an Indian came to the dwell- 
ing of Mrs. Kenton and demanded whisky. 
Being refused, he snatched up her young 
daughter, still a babe in its cradle, and be- 
fore he could be prevented, made off with it 

125 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



through the woods. The mother's feelings 
may be imagined. When the kidnaper 
brought the babe to his camp, the other In- 
dians of his party, however, immediately car- 
ried it back to its mother, and called on her 
to say what punishment should be inflicted 
on the culprit. She required nothing except 
to be protected from such outrages in the 
future. 

Mrs. Kenton was converted and became 
a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in 1808. In 1810 the family removed to Ur- 
bana, where they resided for eight years. In 
1818 they procured a small section of land 
in Logan County, and made a clearing, put- 
ting up a cabin upon it. Here they obtained 
a meager living. Much of the time prior to 
this removal General Kenton was away 
from his home, seeking to dispose of his 
property in Kentucky, where he owned large 
tracts of land. But the land-sharks in that 
State, and the agents whom he employed, 
took advantage of his long absence from the 

126 



PIOXEER METHODIST WOMEN 

State and his lack of education, and by some 
legal quirks wheedled him out of all that he 
possessed, even bringing him into debt and 
confining him for several years in prison as 
a delinquent debtor! During all this while 
Mrs. Kenton managed as best she could, and 
after their settlement on their own property 
in Logan County spent the years in unremit- 
ting toil. 

In 1819 they attended a camp-meeting on 
Mad River. Here the general met the Rev. 
Robert W. Finley, whom he had not seen 
for many years. They had become ac- 
quainted in Kentucky, and this interview 
was interesting to both of them. The serv- 
ices of the camp-meeting had been in prog- 
ress for several days without any special re- 
ligious movement in the congregation, until 
Sunday evening, when it pleased God to pour 
out His Spirit in a remarkable manner. 
Many were awakened, and among the num- 
ber were some of the general's relatives and 
members of his family. It was not long un- 

127 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

til the awakening was followed by their con- 
version. The old hero was a witness of 
these scenes. His heart was touched, and on 
the next morning he asked Mr. Finley to go 
with him into the woods. When they were 
out of hearing of the encampment the gen- 
eral said: "I want to tell you some things 
which you must promise never to divulge." 
Mr. Finley replied that if what he wished to 
say would affect nobody but themselves, he 
certainly would never mention it. Sitting 
down on a log, the general began to describe 
the feelings of his heart and to disclose its 
wretchedness; what a great sinner he had 
been, and how merciful God was in preserv- 
ing him amid the perils and conflicts of the 
wilderness. He had been in deaths oft, in 
captivity and confinement, yet God had de- 
livered him; and all this while he had only 
rebelled against Him, and withstood His 
grace. While he was thus unburdening his 
soul and disclosing the anguish of his spirit, 
his lips quivered with emotion and great 

128 



PIONEER METHODIST WOMEN 

tears fell from his eyes and rolled down over 
his cheeks. Both of them fell upon their 
knees, and the general called aloud to God 
for mercy and salvation. Mr. Finley pointed 
him to Jesus as an almighty Savior; and 
after a long struggle the gate of eternal life 
was passed, and he found rest for his heavy- 
laden soul. Then from the old veteran, who 
immediately sprang to his feet, there went 
up a shout of gladness that made the woods 
ring. He started on a run for the camp, 
leaving Mr. Finley behind, and the faster and 
farther he went, the louder he shouted. His 
appearance and shouts startled the entire as- 
sembly at the encampment; and when Mr. 
Finley arrived he found an immense crowd 
around him, to whom he was declaring the 
goodness and the power of God to save. 
There was no need now to keep the general's 
secret ; he had published it himself ! He im- 
mediately united with the Church of which 
his wife was already a member, and remained 
9 129 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



in its communion during the remainder of 
his life. 

On April 29, 1836, General Kenton died, 
and his remains were buried on a spot within 
sight of his home. But in 1865 they were 
removed to Oakdale Cemetery, at Urbana, 
and in 1884 a handsome monument was 
erected at his grave by the State of Ohio — 
the old tombstone being placed at its foot. 
During his declining years he received a 
small pension from the government in con- 
sideration of his services in the wars with 
the savages and the British, and this kept 
him and his wife from actual want. She 
nursed him with assiduity in his feebleness 
and last sickness, but her own health was 
broken, and soon after his death she removed 
to Indiana, to her daughter's. 

She never recovered her strength, which 
gradually declined until the autumn of 1842, 
when she became almost helpless. She looked 
upon approaching death with calmness and 
resignation; made a disposition of the few 

130 



PIONEER METHODIST WOMEN 



effects belonging to her, giving to each of 
her children and grandchildren small tokens 
of her affectionate remembrance, some of 
them being the workmanship of her own 
hands; and awaited the end. She retained 
the nse of her faculties to the last, though 
she had not spoken for some hours before 
the final moment. She died at the home of 
her son-in-law, J. G. Parkinson, in Jasper 
County, November 27, 1812. 

Mrs. Kenton was a kind neighbor, an af- 
fectionate wife, and a tender and faithful 
mother. She looked well to the ways of her 
household, and brought up her children in 
the nurture and admonition of the Lord. She 
accepted her lot without repining, though 
she could not help feeling the injustice shown 
to her husband in Kentucky. In the midst 
of her poverty she always had a welcome 
for those who sought her hospitality. A 
hard worker, most of her years were passed 
in privation. She never enjoyed any of the 
luxuries of life, and her chief comfort was 

131 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



a contented spirit and her prospect of reach- 
ing that better country for which she longed. 
This hope sustained her in all her afflictions. 

"Fair land! — could mortal eyes 
But half its charms explore, 
How would our spirits long to rise, 
And dwell on earth no more!" 

Besides the names here recorded there are 
many others equally worthy of mention. The 
entire State of Ohio during its formative pe- 
riod abounded in the good deeds of its women, 
not only in the Church, but in society. They 
trained their sons to be worthy citizens, and 
their daughters to be noble wives and moth- 
ers. They brought up their children to fear 
God and to keep His commandments. Our 
educational system is the outgrowth of their 
home life ; our Churches have extended their 
benevolent work in their Sunday-schools and 
charitable enterprises, and the State has sup- 
plemented their energies in its houses of 
refuge and its asylums for the orphans and 

132 



PIONEER METHODIST WOMEN 

widows, and homes for the aged, the poor 
and the afflicted. Where is the hospital that 
does not have women nurses? Where is the 
school that does not employ women teach- 
ers ? Where is the public institution that 
does not contain women attendants? 

We are the inheritors of the spirit and 
devotion which animated the women of pio- 
neer days; let us transmit the same to our 
posterity unimpaired. 



133 



VII 



A TYPICAL REVIVAL 

(CHILLICOTHE, 1818-19.) 

In the winter of 1818-19 a powerful re- 
vival of religion occurred in the town of 
Chillicothe, Ohio, which for its extent and 
results has seldom been equaled in the his- 
tory of Methodism in the West. The Church 
in that place had for some years been in a 
low spiritual condition. There were bicker- 
ings and fault-findings in the name of god- 
liness ; brethren kept aloof from each other ; 
worship had degenerated into formalism; in- 
nocent words and actions were wrongly in- 
terpreted on the part of self -constituted cen- 
sors; and they who should have been the 
nursing fathers and nursing mothers of the 
younger members were themselves starve- 
lings, and starved others. There were dis- 

134 



A TYPICAL REVIVAL 



affections in the classes ; political differences 
had wrought religious differences; and all 
the while no one could detect the beam in 
his own eye, while he saw the mote in his 
neighbor's. There was zeal of a certain 
kind, but it was not according to knowledge 
or piety. 

Such was the condition of affairs in the 
society when the Ohio Conference met in the 
fall of 1818. William Swayze was appointed 
at this session to be the pastor in charge, 
for the ensuing year, of Deer Creek Circuit, 
which included Chillicothe. He was then in 
the prime of manhood, full of Christian ac- 
tivities, an earnest preacher, striving after 
souls ; and though not eloquent, he was good, 
sensible, plain, "without offense lest the 
word of God be blamed. ' ' His sermons were 
full of consolation and encouragement to be- 
lievers, and pungent with divine denuncia- 
tions of the law against sinners. He would 
not allow himself to become the favorer or 
the adversary of any clique or faction in the 

135 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



Church, and so conducted himself as to win 
the genuine respect and love of all. And the 
confidence of the people was not misplaced. 
He was worthy of their esteem, and never 
forfeited it. 

The first indications of a revival ap- 
peared in August. In that month a camp- 
meeting was held on the grounds of "White 
Brown, about twelve miles north of Chilli- 
cothe, which was attended by many persons 
from the town. During the progress of the 
meeting, some of these, who had gone more 
for curiosity and recreation than for re- 
ligious benefit, were awakened, and ere long 
were converted; while some of the profes- 
sors of religion were led into a renewed con- 
secration of themselves and their gifts to the 
Master's service. An increased reverence 
was manifest among the worshipers in the 
congregation. Deeper solemnity accompa- 
nied the preaching of the Word, and there 
were several awakenings. A large attend- 
ance at Church also showed that more in- 

136 



A TYPICAL REVIVAL 



terest was taken, and during the months of 
September and October a few experienced 
the pardoning mercy of God. In the course 
of these two months about twenty were 
added to the society. 

At the quarterly meeting held by John 
Collins, the presiding elder, on the last Sat- 
urday and Sunday of October, the awaken- 
ings became more apparent. Many were 
brought into a serious concern for their 
souls' salvation. From this meeting the work 
of reformation went on and increased ex- 
ceedingly. The Spirit of God was evidently 
finding His way into the hearts of the people. 
On the first Sunday in November twenty- 
two more united with the Church. Convic- 
tions for sin were now greatly multiplied, 
and conversions occurred daily. Upon many 
lips arose the inquiry, "What must I do 
to be saved !" and a general seriousness, al- 
most an awe, appeared to be felt by all, 
whether attending upon public worship or 
not. 

137 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

The work of the revival now continued 
to increase daily. Meetings were held nearly 
every night in the week, and frequently con- 
tinned until midnight. At every meeting 
some new soul fell under the power of di- 
vine grace. Many who attended careless 
and indifferent returned to their homes 6 6 bur- 
dened and sick and faint." Many who had 
heretofore " cared for none of these things" 
now began to see the exceeding sinfulness 
of sin and cried for mercy. Some who had 
become backslidden in heart repented and 
did the first works, while those who had 
hardened their hearts and rejected the offers 
of mercy now saw the wrath of God abiding 
upon them and hastened to flee for refuge 
to lay hold upon the hope set before them 
in the gospel. Believers in Christ were 
made to rejoice and praise the Lord from a 
sense of His loving-kindness to their own 
souls. The divine presence seemed to be 
felt by all who attended these meetings. Not 
a vacant or unconcerned countenance was to 

138 



A TYPICAL REVIVAL 



be seen. Seriousness and solemnity were 
marked on every face, and many who had 
been accustomed to make a mock at religion 
were constrained to acknowledge that it was 
the Lord's doings, and marvelous in their 
eyes. 

The preaching of the Word by Mr. Swayze 
was constantly accompanied by the divine 
energy, and the hearts and consciences of his 
hearers were powerfully affected. Nightly 
the church was crowded, and thick and fast 
flew the arrows of conviction among those 
who had resisted the truth or had hitherto 
remained impenitent. Abiding impressions 
were made, and the mourners 9 bench was 
crowded with those who were seeking for a 
new heart. Those who mourned in Zion were 
numbered by the score, and it is not strange 
that they who sought found, and to them 
who knocked was the door opened. By faith 
they were enabled to lay hold on the prom- 
ises; and they obtained "beauty for ashes, 
the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment 

139 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

of praise for the spirit of heaviness." God, 
who is rich in mercy to all that call upon 
Him, never dishonors His own pledges; and 
all who in every age and from among all 
nations have sought unto Him have found 
Him faithful and just to forgive sins and to 
cleanse from all unrighteousness. New-born 
souls, rejoicing in their first love, and glad 
beyond measure by the indwelling of the 
Holy Spirit, were burdened for the salva- 
tion of others. The new converts sought out 
their unconverted friends and urged them 
to come to their Savior, nor would they be 
put off with vain and frivolous excuses. Like 
the servants of the man who made a great 
supper and bade many to come to the feast, 
they compelled them to come in. 

One meeting in particular is worthy of 
special mention, though several were of the 
same character. It was the prayer-meeting 
held on Friday night, November 30th. The 
congregation had not fully assembled, nor 
had public worship begun ; but while the peo- 

140 



A TYPICAL EEVIVAL 

pie were sitting in solemn silence, the Spirit 
of the Most High descended and filled the 
assembly. It was another Pentecost; for 
thongh not accompanied with the " sound 
from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind," 
nor with " cloven tongues like as of fire," 
yet these external evidences could scarcely 
have imparted a greater consciousness of 
the divine outpouring than was experienced 
by almost every one in the house. The peo- 
ple rose involuntarily to their feet ; some few 
in consternation fled from the place; deep 
and pungent conviction seized many, while 
more felt "the speechless awe that dares not 
move." Solemnity sat upon every counte- 
nance; and when an invitation was given to 
penitents to kneel at the mourners' bench, 
the railing about the chancel was soon 
crowded. It appeared as if every uncon- 
verted person in the room, which was filled 
to overflowing, felt more or less of the con- 
victing grace of God's Spirit. During the 
progress of this meeting a number were en- 

141 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



abled to rejoice in the pardon of their sins 
and to go away with a heart disburdened of 
its load of guilt and washed from all its de- 
filement. 

The fruits of this evening's exercises were 
seen on the Sunday following — on which day 
forty-eight new members were added to the 
Church. This is the largest number received 
into the society on any one day during the 
revival. On this Sunday a love-feast was 
held, to which a number of serious persons 
not belonging to the Church were admitted. 
The presence of Jehovah was most emi- 
nently felt. Deep conviction seized several 
who had not hitherto yielded themselves 
servants of righteousness, and they now pros- 
trated themselves before the Lord and cried 
aloud for mercy. At the hour for public 
preaching, when the doors were opened, the 
house was immediately filled; but so loud 
were the united cries of the penitents and 
the shouts of praise from those who had 
just then emerged from darkness into light 

142 



A TYPICAL REVIVAL 



and from the power of Satan into the glori- 
ous liberty of the sons of God, that the 
preacher could not be heard. Services were 
continued uninterruptedly from 9 o'clock in 
the morning until near midnight, and dur- 
ing its progress a number were delivered 
from their burden of guilt and testified that 
God has power on earth to forgive sins. 

The revival which during the months of 
September, October, and November had, like 
a flowing stream, deepened and widened in 
its progress, in December reached the mag- 
nitude and impetuosity of a mighty torrent. 
Awakenings became more general. All 
classes were moved and people of all ranks 
in society were affected. Conversions were 
more frequent, clear, and powerful. The 
congregations which attended public worship 
were greatly increased in number and in se- 
rious and solemn attention. The Church 
was usually filled at every meeting, and es- 
pecially on Sabbaths, when it was crowded 
to excess. It is supposed that there were fre- 

143 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



quently over a thousand persons present. The 
house seated, when full, about eight hundred. 
The manifestations of the divine power and 
presence at almost every meeting were aston- 
ishing. It was not possible to behold the 
various operations of the Spirit without the 
deepest emotion. At one and the same time 
might be seen sinners groaning for redemp- 
tion through the blood of Christ, and new- 
born souls shouting the praises of their De- 
liverer. The pious, who had long before 
tasted and seen that the Lord is good, also 
rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of 
glory, uttering thanksgivings and praises for 
His wonderful dealings with their own souls. 
To them the Spirit came in unstinted meas- 
ure, and they were filled with all the fullness 
of God. "0 the depth of the riches, both of 
the wisdom and knowledge of God!" 

The chancel was usually crowded with 
mourners, where there were frequently as 
many as fifty or sixty at once, pouring out 
strong cries and tears in the anguish of their 

144 



A TYPICAL REVIVAL 



hearts. By this time the attention of the 
citizens of the town generally was directed 
to the subject of religion. Those who were 
in the habit of attending the meetings could 
not refrain from talking about the revival of 
religion at the Methodist Church, and it be- 
came the principal topic of conversation.- 
Many, of course, as is always the case, op- 
posed the work of grace, possessing neither 
godliness nor the form thereof; while some 
who did possess the form knew nothing of 
its power, and spoke against it either in slight 
or contempt, Others there were, however, of 
a different spirit ; who, though not Metho- 
dists and not accepting Methodist doctrine, 
were candid and liberal, and gave it their 
approbation, and their prayers and wishes 
for its success. The Redeemer's kingdom 
was in their estimation broader than Church 
lines and Church creeds. 

Early in the revival three young men who 
had shown much opposition to it paraded 
the streets one night in company with a 
• 10 145 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

drunkard, whom tliey employed to aid them 
in ridiculing and making a mock of the re- 
ligions exercises at the church. Causing the 
drunken man to kneel down in the street, 
they pretended to pray for him as a person 
under conviction, seeking religion. Then 
they would cause him to rise to his feet and 
utter expressions of praise, telling him he 
was now converted. This and other blas- 
phemous travesties of divine things they per- 
formed the same night on the streets oppo- 
site the homes of the leading Methodists. In 
the midst of their wicked sport a sudden ex- 
traordinary light passed over the town, ap- 
parently very near to them. Unknowing 
what it was, and struck with terror at the 
sight of the meteor, they looked upom it as a 
messenger from heaven, sent to warn them 
of the wrath of an offended God. Their 
knees smote one against the other, and their 
hearts quaked. As soon as they could speak, 
one of them said to the others, "That is a 
loud call to us to repent, and it is probably 

146 



A TYPICAL REVIVAL 

the last that I shall ever have." They im- 
mediately separated, and returned to their 
homes. Two of them were seized at once with 
conviction of sin, and the terrors of the law 
seemed to thunder in their consciences. 
Upon retiring to bed they could not sleep. 
They wrestled In agony, calling upon the 
Lord, whom they had provoked, for mercy. 
For several days they continued in the deep- 
est distress of mind, but deliverance came at 
last. Both were converted and became mem- 
bers of the Church. One of the two was a 
ring-leader in disturbing the worship of God 
at the church only two months before this 
time, but now, like persecuting Saul — "be- 
hold, he prayeth." 

The revival reached its highest point in 
December, but continued with little abate- 
ment of interest through the months of Jan- 
uary and February following. During this 
work of grace there were added to the Meth- 
odist Church in Chillicothe two hundred and 
twenty new members. The greater part of 

147 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

these — perhaps four-fifths at least of the 
whole number — were young persons of both 
sexes, in the bloom of life. And it was re- 
marked by several old and experienced 
preachers who came to visit the revival and 
lend their assistance in its progress, that they 
never witnessed more evident marks of a 
solid and genuine work of grace than those 
exhibited by most of the young converts ; nor 
had they ever been present in any revival of 
religion of such an extent where there was 
less extravagance or disorder. In this work 
the Presbyterian Church likewise shared. 
Several new members were admitted on a 
profession of faith, while some of the older 
members were 6 6 renewed in the spirit of their 
minds," and brought forth fruit to the glory 
and praise of God by their exemplary walk 
and conversation. 

In the Methodist Church on Deer Creek 
Circuit, and especially in the town, there was 
a considerable increase in the piety and de- 
votion of the older members. Many of them 

148 



A TYPICAL REVIVAL 



saw and felt the need of a deeper work of 
grace in their own souls and groaned ear- 
nestly for fnll redemption. The "higher 
life" was not at that time so prominently 
taught as it is now, yet the pulpit was not 
silent as to the doctrine of "the second bless- 
ing. " It was sung in our hymns, and a few 
professors of sanctification cautiously gave 
their testimony to their enjoyment of per- 
sonal holiness. At this revival a few entered 
into that perfect rest of faith, and testified 
to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit 
in their lives. As an instance of this expe- 
rience I give that of one of the participants 
in this great revival. 1 It is found in one of 
his private letters to a friend, dated March 
12, 1819: 

4 ' As it respects myself, I know not where 
to begin the wondrous account of the un- 
speakable goodness of God to me. During 
the last seven weeks the Lord has frequently 
filled my cup of blessing with as much of 



•l Samuel Williams, of Cincinnati. 

149 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

His divine presence as I could well bear. I 
felt, however, frequently the corruption of 
my own heart struggling to overcome me. 
I labored against it and besought the Lord 
that He would give me a clean heart. The 
enemy of souls thrust at me his severest 
darts, and endeavored to persuade me that 
I did not enjoy religion and was deceiving 
myself. I presented my case before the Most 
High in earnest and importunate prayer, and 
frequently, for several days. Three days 
ago this morning, while engaged in family 
worship, the Lord took my cause into His 
own hand. His Spirit was upon me ; I could 
scarcely speak; and when we rose from our 
knees I walked out to the porch to try to 
compose myself to sit down to breakfast. I 
can not describe my feelings. I felt happy, 
but could not understand the unaccountable 
sensations I experienced. I sat down to the 
table, but had taken but one mouthful of food 
when the streams of grace divine poured into 
my soul! I even then endeavored to com- 
pose myself, but in a minute or two my cup 
was full and overflowing. I was compelled 
to rise from the table and praise my God 

150 



A TYPICAL EEVIVAL 



aloud for His goodness to me. I retired to 
an upper room and, falling on my knees, 
adored the riches of Divine grace. I went to 
the window and thought all nature changed, 
and the very trees on the hill appeared to 
me to be reaching up their branches toward 
heaven to praise the Lord. 

"The room soon filled with my pious 
neighbors and brethren, who came in to re- 
joice with me and praise the Lord on my 
behalf, and continued with me till the after- 
noon, during all which time I was unable to 
take any breakfast. Suffice it to say that 
most of the time these four days my earthen 
vessel has been full and running over. I have 
not been able to compose myself to pursue 
my work in the office. 2 I tried it the second 
day, but was, after restraining myself some 
time, compelled to give way and praise the 
Lord aloud in the office. I have spent most 
of these four days in visiting from house to 
house, encouraging my brethren, and calling 
sinners to repentance. The Spirit of the 

2 That of the Surveyor-General of the lands northwest of 
the Ohio River. Governor Tiffin was at that time the incumbent 
of the office, and had the direction of all the surveys in that por- 
tion of the United States. Mr. Williams was his chief clerk. 



151 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



Lord appears to accompany my weak efforts 
in almost every case ; and I feel that I am, 
in this delightful work, performing the will 
of my adorable Master. I am more than ever 
convinced that the Lord has a work for me 
to do, and that He is preparing me for it. 
His great goodness to me has become known 
over the town, and even several of the Pres- 
byterian brethren have called to see me — 
acknowledging that it is the marvelous do- 
ings of the Almighty. I was at first afraid to 
believe that the Lord had really given me a 
clean heart — that perfect love which casteth 
out fear; but looking to Him for the evi- 
dences of the Holy Spirit, I am clearly 
pointed back to the unspeakable blessing I 
received four days ago; and from the entire 
change which has taken place in my feelings, 
I can no longer doubt the reality of its being 
the sanctifying grace of God ! . . . 

"I find the cross of Christ to be rest to 
my soul. About two months ago our sta- 
tioned preacher placed a class of women, of 
about twenty-two members, under my charge. 
The cross of leading this class was at first 
almost insupportable, but it is always ren- 



152 



A TYPICAL EEVIVAL 



dered a blessing to me. My class is the most 
flourishing in the society, being composed 
mostly of old established members. I feel 
myself under obligation to Redeeming Love 
so much, it would be unpardonable ingrati- 
tude if I should fail to do all in my power 
to promote the work of the Lord. " 

But the work of the revival did not yet 
cease. Before the end of February two hun- 
dred and twenty members were added to the 
Church. The warmth of zeal, the earnest- 
ness of devotion, the fervency of spirit, the 
growth in grace, and the general improve- 
ment of the Church still continued. The 
large increase in membership, and especially 
in the congregations that every Sunday as- 
sembled for preaching, rendered it necessary 
to build a new house of worship, and it was 
at once undertaken. It was located on the 
north side of Second Street, between Paint 
and Walnut, and constructed of brick, two 
stories in height, and of a size seventy by 
forty feet. Within the year it was com- 

153 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

pleted, and by the following winter was ready 
for occupancy. During the greater part of 
this great revival, general class-meetings 
were held weekly, for the members of the 
society only, and for such serious persons as 
desired admission to the Church. These 
meetings were conducted similarly to love- 
feasts, and were found to be peculiarly prof- 
itable and edifying. All contentions ceased; 
Divine love had melted all hearts and fused 
all tempers into one, and while they " spoke 
often one to another, the Lord hearkened and 
heard. ' ' 

The character of this revival was that of 
a deep, rational, and solid work of grace. It 
was entirely free from extravagances which 
have sometimes accompanied great revivals, 
and its results were felt after many long 
years. The flame kindled at this time in so 
many hearts never burned out. Within the 
Conference year 1818-19, at Chillicothe alone 
upwards of three hundred souls were added 
to the Church. The greatness of the work — 

154 



A TYPICAL EEVIVAL 



for it continued many weeks — rendered Mr. 
Swayze's duties extremely laborious and fa- 
tiguing. His continued and excessive labors 
greatly exhausted his strength and endan- 
gered his health. His preaching was ren- 
dered by Divine help effectual in the awaken- 
ing of many scores of careless sinners. The 
local preachers and official members were 
generally of one mind and heart, and ably 
assisted their pastor in these services. When 
Moses has Aaron and Hur to uphold his 
hands, the hosts of Israel prevail. 



155 



VIII 



AN EPISODE OF CINCINNATI METH- 
ODISM (1811) 

In 1811 the Western Conference met for 
the last time in Cincinnati. At that date 
there were fifty-eight preachers in full con- 
nection to man the entire work extending 
over Western Virginia, Kentucky, Tennes- 
see, and Ohio; seventeen were this year re- 
ceived into full connection; fifteen were con- 
tinued, and twenty-four admitted, on trial. 
Seven located. Bishops Asbury and McKen- 
dree presided, and Learner Blackman acted 
as secretary. The sessions were held in the 
old market house, a two-story structure on 
Pearl Street near Broadway. 

During the sitting of that Conference in 
October three of the younger members of the 
body, Peter Cartwright, Thomas Stillwell, 

156 



AN EPISODE OF METHODISM 

and Samuel Griffin, procured the printing in 
tract form of a low and pitiful doggerel en- 
titled "The Dagon of Calvinism, or the Mo- 
loch of Decrees: a Poem in Three Cantos." 
The pamphlet contained about thirty-two 
pages, and was printed without the approba- 
tion or even the knowledge of the other mem- 
bers of the Conference, as it was the inten- 
tion of the parties named to circulate it 
mainly throughout their circuits in Kentucky, 
where Methodism needed to act not only on 
the defensive, but on the offensive. A few 
copies got out, notwithstanding the clandes- 
tine manner in which it was printed, and were 
circulated in the city. The author, it was 
said, was a Mr. Smith, of New England, a 
man who never belonged to the Methodist 
Church. It had been printed in Boston, 
anonymously, and without copyright, as a 
contribution to the controversial theology of 
the day — a remarkable protest against the 
Calvinistic doctrines of election, reprobation, 
and eternal decrees. But this poem was not 

157 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



the only protest against Calvinism in that 
stronghold of Augustinian doctrine. The fol- 
lowing advertisement appeared in The Bos- 
ton Evening Post of Monday, August 17, 
1767: 

"This day is published and sold by T. 
and I. Fleet, in Cornhill, price 9d. single or 
8s. per dozen, An Essay on Universal Re- 
demption, wherein is shown, That Christ did 
not die purely for the sake of a small part 
of mankind, but all and every man; That by 
Christ every man is put into a capacity of 
obtaining everlasting salvation ; That neither 
Adam's sin nor any of our own hath made 
the blessed God implacable and irreconci- 
lable, but that He will afford all necessary 
grace to enable and excite us to faith, re- 
pentance, and a godly life; And that upon 
the faithful improvement of this abundant 
mercy and help, He will most assuredly for- 
give all men their sins, justify, ever bless, 
and save them. By J ohn Smith. ' ' 

As this essay was strongly opposed to 
Calvinism and is in the same line with the 



158 



AN EPISODE OF METHODISM 

"Dagon of Calvinism," they were probably 
both written by the same person. In what 
year the poem was first published, we are 
not informed; but it had been current for 
some time when it was reprinted in Cincin- 
nati. Its method of treating the doctrines 
of Calvin was exactly adapted to the tem- 
perament and idiosyncrasies of such a man 
as Cart wright, and he saw how effectively 
he could use it in combating them. It struck 
a popular vein; it was the argument of Cal- 
vin carried to its extreme conclusion. But it 
was not equal to ' 6 Holy Willie 's Prayer," by 
Burns, in presenting the Calvinistic view of 
election and reprobation: 

"0 Thou, wha in the heavens dost dwell, 
Wlia, as it pleases best Thysel', 
Sends ane to heaven and ten to hell, 

A' for Thy glory, 
And no' for ony guid or ill 

They 've done afore Thee!" etc. 

Accordingly Mr. Cartwright, in connection 
with the other two, had it reprinted without 

159 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



change at the office of John W. Browne and 
Company, proprietors of the Liberty Hall, 
afterwards the Cincinnati Gazette. 

A copy of this pamphlet, soon after the 
Conference adjourned, fell into the hands of 
the Eev. Joshua L. "Wilson, pastor of the 
Presbyterian Church, and, as might be ex- 
pected, produced an explosion. The Doctor 
boiled over with wrath and ecclesiastical in- 
dignation at the caricature. Calvinism was 
at that day preached without dilution, and 
to that system of faith Mr. Wilson was com- 
mitted by preference and education. Even 
then he was regarded as a leader in Zion. 
His marked individuality and his earnest 
enforcement of the divine requirements, his 
stirring appeals and his strong convictions 
made him a successful and useful pastor. 
He was born in Bedford County, Virginia, 
September 22, 1774, and emigrated with his 
father's family to Kentucky in 1781. In that 
State he was ordained to the ministry by 
the presbytery of Transylvania, and installed 

160 



AN EPISODE OF METHODISM 

as pastor of Bardstown and Big Spring 
Churches in 1804. In May, 1808, he came to 
Ohio and took charge of the First Presby- 
terian Church in Cincinnati, of which he re- 
mained pastor until his death, in 1846. When 
the Church of which he was a minister di- 
vided into two sections, the Old School and 
the New School, he adhered to the former. 
As he was unwilling to countenance heresy 
in his own denomination, he did not hesitate 
in 1835 to prosecute Dr. Lyman Beecher be- 
fore the presbytery and synod of Cincinnati 
for his semi-Arminian views in theology. 
Dr. Beecher was then a professor in Lane 
Seminary, and also pastor of the Second 
Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati. The 
Doctor's teachings were thoroughly sifted 
by the presbytery, and he was acquitted. 
The same disposition which made Mr. Wil- 
son contend for the faith in his own sect 
led him to contend against heterodoxy in 
others. The publication of the pamphlet 
ll 161 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



mentioned gave him an opportunity to an- 
tagonize what he regarded as heresy. 

Conceiving the "Dagon of Calvinism'' to 
be a libel upon the doctrines of the Church, 
and an outrage upon learning, piety, and 
every principle of friendship and social har- 
mony, he addressed a note to Messrs. John 
W. Browne and Company, demanding an- 
swers to the following questions: "Who is 
the author of the publication above men- 
tioned? What rank does he hold in the Meth- 
odist Church? And where do you expect he 
may be found? As these questions in the 
present case are reasonable, I submit them 
to your candor," wrote Mr. Wilson, but he 
obtained no satisfaction. Mr. Browne was 
absent from the city on a tour to the East, 
and Mr. J. H. Looker, the other partner of 
the firm, declined to reply ; for the very good 
reason, probably, that he did not know. 
Foiled in this first effort to get information, 
Mr. Wilson wrote to John W. Browne's son, 
Samuel J. Browne, then an employee in the 

162 



AN EPISODE OF METHODISM 



office, and a member of the Methodist So- 
ciety in Cincinnati, a rather threatening let- 
ter. "Should yon think proper/' said he, 
i ' to answer the questions proposed in my let- 
ter to the company, I then shall have no com- 
plaint against you as a printer, provided you 
were well paid for the job; but should you 
refuse my reasonable request, I shall be un- 
der the painful necessity of treating you as 
the slanderer, and trying whether the re- 
ligious society to which you belong will re- 
tain in their connection a man who by his 
overt acts manifests himself unfit for the 
kingdom of heaven." 

To these imperious threats young Browne 
very properly paid no attention; but in 
conversation with some of his friends he 
said, "There are enough willing to father 
it." He however withheld the names of his 
employers, if he knew them, and he certainly 
did not know the name of the author any 
more than did Mr. Looker or Mr. Cartwright. 
A more offensive and dictatorial course 

163 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



could not have been pursued by Mr. Wilson, 
and his knowledge of human nature must 
have been small if he supposed he could 
wrest the desired information in that way. 
He first charges Browne with having vio- 
lated a civil law. "You can not be igno- 
rant," he says, "that when a printer con- 
ceals the author of a slander, he himself is 
liable to answer for the crime." He then 
threatens him with a Church prosecution, 
and finally denounces him as unfit for the 
kingdom of heaven! There is not a single 
expression of courtesy, nor is there a spirit 
of meekness and brotherly love, in this cor- 
respondence. Towards those who did not 
speak according to his shibboleth, Mr. Wilson 
exhibited only contempt. He set himself up 
as the censor general of the community. 

Failing to gain the desired information 
from young Browne, though he waited ten 
days for it, Mr. Wilson addressed the fol- 
lowing letter to the presiding elder, the 

164 



AN EPISODE OF METHODISM 



preacher in charge, and other leaders of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in Cincinnati: 

"Cincinnati, Ohio, Oct. 30th, 1811. 
"Friends axd Brethren: 

"Any occurrence which is productive of 
discord or unsocial feeling among those who 
profess the Christian name, and especially 
among those who have in any way agreed 
to unite in Christian fellowship, ought to 
be lamented by every friend to order and 
brotherly love. 

"Our Lord has indeed told us that £ of- 
fenses must come,' but He has not in the 
least degree intimated that offenders are ex- 
cusable. 

"During the sitting of the late Confer- 
ence in Cincinnati a very offensive publica- 
tion was poured into the lap of the public, 
which uncontradicted fame says came from a 
Methodist quarter. All who believe and 
teach that system of doctrine called Calvin- 
ism have just cause of complaint against the 
editor of that book. It is well known to be 
contrary to the rules of the Methodist Epis- 

165 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



copal Church to issue improper publications ; 
therefore to that society an application ought 
first to be made for redress and the fact 
fully ascertained whether they will disavow 
the publication and exercise their discipline 
upon offenders, or whether they will justify 
the nefarious work and thereby become an- 
swerable at the tribunal of the public, the 
bar of conscience, and the judgment seat of 
Christ. Having made these remarks, I, 
Joshua L. Wilson, pastor of the first Presby- 
terian congregation in Cincinnati, believing 
and teaching that system of doctrine called 
Calvinism, but which is in fact 'the doctrine 
of Paul and of Paul's Master/ lay before 
the Methodist Episcopal society in Cincinnati 
the following charges against Samuel J. 
Browne, one of their members, viz. ; — 

"1. That the said Browne did, in the 
month of October, 1811, during the sitting 
of the annual conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal society in Cincinnati, print and 
publish an offensive pamphlet called 'The 
Dagon of Calvinism, or the Moloch of De- 
crees,' etc., in which an attempt is made by 
falsehood and slander to hold up to odium 

166 



AN EPISODE OF METHODISM 



and contempt all Christians except Metho- 
dists and other Arminians. 

"2. In said publication learning is made 
a subject of ridicule, contrary to the rules 
of every well regulated society. 

"3. That the said Browne, though re- 
peatedly applied to, will not give up the name 
of the author, thereby virtually assuming the 
authorship and taking upon himself all re- 
sponsibility. 

"4. He has declared 'there are enough 
willing to father' the said publication, 
thereby insinuating that the leaders of the 
Methodist society approbate it, which many 
of the Calvinists are unwilling to believe. 

"If any of the above charges be denied, 
credible witnesses can be introduced to prove 
their truth. The kind and extent of redress 
reasonably expected in this case can be prop- 
erly stated when the cause comes to issue. 

"J. L. Wilson.' ' 

In this communication the author pre- 
judges the case. It will be noticed that un- 
less the leaders of the Methodist society shall 
bring the offender to trial and punishment 

167 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

they will be held as justifiers of a nefarious 
act, and he implies that if they do not believe 
the doctrine of Calvin, which is the same as 
that of "Paul and Paul's Master," they are 
heretics and misbelievers. It is therefore 
his prerogative to indicate the nature and 
degree of punishment to be inflicted by a 
sister denomination upon an offending mem- 
ber — especially as he, the said Joshua L. 
Wilson, is right and the Methodists wrong! 
To this extraordinary letter the leaders of 
the Methodist Church returned the following 
answer : 

"Cincinnati, 20 Nov., 1811. 
"Beverend and Dear Sir: 

"Through the medium of your letter ad- 
dressed ' to the leaders of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church in Cincinnati, ' we learn that 
your mind, together with the minds of many 
of the citizens of this place, are considerably 
agitated with respect to a pamphlet lately 
reprinted, styled the 'Dagon of Calvinism, 
or the Moloch of Decrees,' etc. 

"We cordially lament any occurrence 
168 



AN EPISODE OF METHODISM 



which should produce discord, or unsocial 
feelings, among those who profess the Chris- 
tian name. 

1 6 We can assnre you, sir, that the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church never patronized said 
publication, either in a general or annual 
conference capacity; and so far from its be- 
ing an act of the annual conference held at 
this place, or of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in Cincinnati, we are confident that 
neither they nor the conference knew noth- 
ing of it, nor of its being reprinted until some 
time after it was circulated. All that we 
can say on the subject is, that, if the persons 
who had the pamphlet reprinted have done 
wrong, they must answer for it at a proper 
tribunal, if called upon in an official way. 
"We are respectfully yours, 

"Solomon Langdox, 

"Presiding Elder; 
"William Bueke, 
"Asst. Preacher, Cin'ti Circuit; 
"0. M. Spexcer, 

"Local Preacher; 
"Ezekiel Hall, 

"Class Leader/' 



169 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

The Methodist brethren, upon reading 
the charges made against Browne, found no 
grounds to authorize an investigation of his 
conduct. He had done nothing worthy of 
censure or trial by the Church, and they let 
the matter drop. Had Mr. Wilson been less 
assuming or dictatorial in his manner, they 
would probably have been more specific in 
their reply. They deemed it sufficient to ex- 
plain to Mr. Wilson that neither the Confer- 
ence nor the society had ever authorized or 
patronized the "Dagon of Calvinism," and 
that they were as ignorant of its being pub- 
lished as Mr. Wilson himself, until they saw 
it in circulation. The rule respecting the is- 
suing of improper publications related only 
to books written by the traveling preachers 
themselves, and could not apply to laymen. 
In those days of religious controversy some 
latitude was necessarily given by the Con- 
ference, and I am not aware that Mr. Cart- 
wright or his associates were ever called to 
account for their share in this transaction, 

170 



AN EPISODE OF METHODISM 

especially as the work was not of their own 
writing. It is certain that no ecclesiastical 
notice was taken of Cartwright's pamphlet, 
£ 'A Letter to the Devil," printed about the 
same time, in answer to one, written anony- 
mously, and sent to him by three Presbyte- 
rian clergymen of Kentucky as coming from 
his Satanic Majesty himself. These letters 
are reprinted in 6 4 Fifty Years as a Presid- 
ing Elder," and show how our fathers once 
had to 1 'contend earnestly for the faith." 
As a rule, Methodism had heretofore acted 
only on the defensive, and our preachers for- 
tified themselves against assault on account 
of their doctrines by a diligent study of our 
earlier Disciplines and the polemical works 
of John Fletcher and the tracts and sermons 
of Mr. Wesley. Mr. Cartwright was not con- 
tent with doing this alone, but he believed 
in making an assault upon the defenses of 
the enemy. Here was a good opportunity 
for him to do so, and as a member of the 
Church militant he buckled on his armor 

171 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



and did valiant service for the cause which 
he had espoused. 

The answer which the Methodist leaders 
in Cincinnati returned to Mr. Wilson's let- 
ter was by no means satisfactory. His prin- 
cipal objections to it were: 1. That his com- 
plaint against Samuel J. Browne was not 
attended to ; 2. That they had represented the 
pamphlet in question as being reprinted ; and 
3. That they did not pronounce any opinion 
on its contents. These he expressed in the 
following letter, which, though long, will in- 
terest the reader: 

"Cincinnati, 5th Nov., 1811. 
"Gentlemen [they are no longer 'friends 
and brethren'] : 
"Your communication of the 2d inst. con- 
tained in it no kind of satisfaction. I was 
sorry to discover that studious evasion which 
seemed intended to cast an illusion upon the 
mind and divert the attention from the real 
and proper object. In the introduction I was 
arrested by the ' agitated minds of many citi- 
zens of this place/ I am entirely at a loss 

172 



AN EPISODE OF METHODISM 



to know how you 'learned that fact through 
the medium' of my letter. I made no such 
communication either directly or indirectly. 
If the minds of many of the citizens of this 
place be agitated, yon must have known the 
circumstance through some other medium. 
As to my own mind being ' agitated,' if that 
word be used to signify excited or moved, I 
have no objection; but if you mean affected 
with perturbation, which is the common ac- 
ceptation, I am happy to know that your con- 
ception is erroneous. 

"But you assure me 'that the Methodist 
Episcopal Church never patronized the Da- 
gon of Calvinism either in a general or an- 
nual conference capacity.' To deny before 
we are asked, and plead innocence when we 
have never been accused of guilt, must al- 
ways be ranked among suspicious circum- 
stances. It would, however, be almost im- 
possible to persuade me that your bishops, 
elders, and deacons possess such a consum- 
mate portion of weakness as ' to patronize in 
a conference capacity' such a diabolical pub- 
lication. But this is more than I can say of 
them as individuals. I have reason to think, 

173 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



and you have not intimated to the contrary, 
that as individuals the greater part possess 
weakness and wickedness enough to patron- 
ize the hateful Idol, and peddle it to the ends 
of the earth. 

"I am also assured, 6 it is not an act of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church in Cincin- 
nati. 9 I never thought or intimated that it 
was. It is hard indeed to conceive to what 
lengths the society in Cincinnati might be 
led by an infuriated party zeal; yet I have 
been happy in an acquaintance with a few 
members of that Church who, I conceive, are 
incapable of such a vile act as the publication 
of 'Dagon.' There are, however, two ways 
by which the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
Cincinnati can make it their own act — either 
by refusing to try the accused person or by 
justifying his conduct after a regular trial. 
And there is one way, and one only, by which 
they can escape the just censure of an en- 
lightened public, viz., by expelling from their 
connection a wretch who, for the sake of 
filthy lucre, and to answer party purposes, 
has become the publisher and vender of 
slander. 

174 



AN EPISODE OF METHODISM 

1 6 My complaint was not made against the 
conference. My charges were not against 
the ' Methodist Church in Cincinnati.' They 
were against an individual, designated by 
name. They were laid before the leaders 
of the society of which he is a member, 
and the society were bound by their own 
rules £ to have the accuser and the ac- 
cused face to face.' But your letter loses 
sight of Samuel J. Browne, and Joshua 
L. Wilson's charges against him, and 
your whole souls become engulfed in ' con- 
ference capacity, act of Church,' etc. And 
to complete the climax of Methodistical 
finesse I am gravely told 'all we can say upon 
the subject is, that if the persons who had 
the pamphlet reprinted have done wrong, 
they must answer for it at a proper tri- 
bunal, if called upon in an official way. ' And 
is this all you can say? A friendly, unpreju- 
diced mind would perhaps think that a few 
words of information might have been added 
when you found me ignorant of your 6 proper 
tribunal and official way.' I had thought 
from your book of Discipline that the proper 
tribunal at which an accused person should 

175 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



be brought to trial was 4 the society of which 
he is a member, or a select number of them. ' 
I had thought my charges were laid in offi- 
cially. But my opinions must kick the beam 
when placed in balance with that artifice in 
which we can discover neither the wisdom of 
the serpent nor the innocence of the dove. 

" L Those persons who had the pamphlet 
reprinted ' — '.Reprinted ! ' — flat contradiction 
to Mr. Browne. He has dared to stamp upon 
the title page of Dagon 'printed' — not, re- 
printed — ' for the author,' by which he not 
only vouches to the world that it is the first 
publication of the pamphlet, but that he 
knows the author. He has assumed the 
authorship and boasts that the work has 
many fathers. After saying 'all you can,' 
you have not told us that you or any Metho- 
dists under heaven disapprove of the publi- 
cation. The illusive face of your letter would 
not prevent me from thinking that every 
Methodist preacher, from the oldest bishop 
down to the most untutored circuit rider, ap- 
probates the infamous libel. 

" 'If the persons have done wrong' — If! 

176 



AN EPISODE OF METHODISM 



— what, is it really doubtful whether a wrong 
has been done? Or is it only doubtful 
whether ' the persons who had the pamphlet 
reprinted have done wrong?' I readily de- 
clare that I doubt whether any such persons 
exist. But as you aver the fact, in opposi- 
tion to the editor of the book, my skepti- 
cism can only be removed by your with- 
drawing the curtains which now conceal them 
and making them stand in the face of day 
where all honest men are willing to appear. 
But could anybody do wrong but those non- 
descript, non-identified re-publishers who are 
concealed in the 'blackness of darkness?' 
Could persons do no wrong who could stuff 
their saddlebags with the detestable thing, 
and disseminate the infernal Moloch among 
the ignorant and unstable? Is it doing no 
wrong to prejudice the minds of men against 
the truth and hold up the ministers of God as 
worse than devils incarnate? If Calvinists 
are to be thus forestalled, if Methodism is to 
be thus spread and supported by the worst 
of falsehood and the vilest of slander, heaven 
forbid that I should be silent! — mildness it- 



12 



177 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

self would be a crime. I can never believe 
that man to be a Christian who would write, 
print, or approbate the 'Dagon of Calvin- 
ism, ' for my Bible teaches me that he that 
loveth as well as he that maketh a lie must 
stand excluded from the gates of the New 
J erusalem. 

"With all due respect, I am 

"J. L. Wilson. " 

There is a vast difference between a 
charge against a system of doctrines or ar- 
ticles of belief, and against an individual. 
Mr. Wilson seemed to consider an assault 
upon Calvinism as a personal attack — he at 
least took it as a personal affront; and like 
David, who counted as his cause the cause 
of Jehovah, he made those who hated his 
creed his enemies; for his creed was, in his 
view, that "of Paul and of Paul's Master." 
It was for this reason that he speaks so in- 
dignantly in the foregoing letter, to which 
the Methodist leaders returned the following 
reply, which closed the correspondence: 

178 



AN EPISODE OF METHODISM 



"Cincinnati, Nov. 6, 1811. 

"Reverend and Dear Sir: 

"This morning we received your truly 
astonishing letter of the 5th inst. We con- 
fess we are considerably at a loss to com- 
prehend your wish or design. We thought 
our letter of the 3d instant would have been 
quite satisfactory, and that we had left our- 
selves entirely accessible. 

"We had entertained a hope that you 
possessed the Christian spirit, that you 
would have availed yourself of an opportu- 
nity of conversing with us, and thereby have 
come to a proper understanding of the sub- 
ject of our difference. But since the receipt 
of your last letter we have lost all hope, — 
however, we are still willing to give any in- 
formation to you, or any other person, that 
will call on us in a Christian or friendly way. 

' ' We cordially regret the unhappy diff er- 
ences that exist between Christians of differ- 
ent denominations ; but 6 weak and wicked 9 as 
the most of us are, we trust we shall always 
have grace and wisdom enough to deport 
ourselves as the servants of Christ, and if 
we are not orthodox, we hope we possess the 

179 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

spirit of 'Paul and of Paul's Master/ and 
even to the present hour presume that ' mild- 
ness' is no 6 crime.' 

' ' We are respectfully yours, 

"Solomon Lakgdon, 
"William Burke, 
"0. M. Spencer, 
"Ezekiel Hall." 

Of course further correspondence was im- 
possible, and Mr. Wilson endeavored to sol- 
ace his wounded sensibilities by rushing into 
print. He issued a small pamphlet in re- 
joinder to the "Dagon of Calvinism," which 
he entitled "Episcopal Methodism; or Da- 
gonism Exhibited." This he divided into 
five scenes: 1. Justice and Controversy; 2. 
Narrative and Fact; 3. Falsehood and Slan- 
der; 4. Eidicule and Scorn; and 5. The Mis- 
sionary Forestalled He recited the facts in 
the case as far as he knew them, and then 
proceeded to discuss the theories of Calvin- 
ism as opposed to those of the Arminians. 
He did not spare invective, and was guilty 
of the same species of slander which he com- 

180 



AN EPISODE OF METHODISM 

plained of in the author of "Dagon." He 
endeavored to refute the doctrines of Meth- 
odism by stating those of Calvinism, deeming 
that the latter would command general as- 
sent among thinking men, without a pro- 
longed argument. He quoted largely from 
"Dagon" to show its inconsistencies with 
"the doctrine of Paul and of Paul's Mas- 
ter;" yet he did not seem to reflect that "he 
that is first in his own cause seemeth just, 
but his neighbor cometh and searcheth him." 

And this is just what his neighbor did. 
As soon as Mr. "Wilson's pamphlet was 
"poured into the lap of the public," an 
"Anodyne Satire" was printed in answer to 
it, written, it is believed, by Elijah Sparks, 
a local preacher, but formerly of the travel- 
ing connection. There was in it more of 
the ad hominem than of argumentum. But 
it was answering a fool according to his 
folly. The author quotes some of the choice 
epithets which Mr. Wilson applied to the 
Methodists, and to those who rejected his 

181 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



theology: "atheists, infidels, hypocrites, blas- 
phemers, hellish monsters, vociferators, sim- 
pletons, fools, idiots," etc. It is not strange 
to read these words in religious controversy, 
as it was then carried on, how much odium 
theologicum there was, when men like Top- 
lady and Eowland Hill had employed the 
same, and even worse, in their arguments 
against Mr. Wesley. But Mr. Sparks used 
anodyne rather than caustic, and the severest 
charge he brought against his antagonist was 
the domineering spirit which he exhibited, 
and his fond use of the capital I in his pam- 
phlet. 

"The Evangelical Record and Western 
Review," published in Lexington, Kentucky, 
commenced in their first number, January, 
1812, a review of Mr. Wilson's pamphlet. 
This falling into the hands of Barnabas Mc- 
Henry, he printed a pamphlet of fifty pages, 
containing some "Kemarks" upon it, and 
upon a tract issued only a short time pre- 
viously at Danville, entitled "A Useful Dis- 

182 



AN EPISODE OF METHODISM 



covery." Mr. McHenry thus himself re- 
views "Wilson's pamphlet, vindicating the 
Methodist doctrine and polity in a calm, dig- 
nified, and straight-forward manner; hut he 
has little to say about "Dagon," and does 
not mention Mr. Cartwright's connection 
with its publication. 

A more sober answer was made to Mr. 
Wilson's tract by William Burke, preacher 
in charge of the Cincinnati station. Mr. 
Burke was an able preacher, thoroughly in- 
doctrinated in Wesleyan theology, and was a 
foeman worthy of Mr. Wilson's steel. He 
traversed all of the Calvinistic arguments, 
and showed that there was also something 
to be said on the other side. The doctrines 
of free grace and universal salvation which 
he presented were shown to be in accord 
with Scripture and reason. He vindicated 
the action of the leaders of the Church in 
not summoning young Browne to trial, for 
on investigation they found the charges 
against him to be frivolous. He was only a 

183 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

job printer, and not an author. On the same 
principle even Mr. Wilson himself would be 
liable to a prosecution before his presbytery 
for preaching against Arminianism. If ev- 
ery Presbyterian had been expelled from the 
communion of the Church for controverting 
the tenets of the Methodists in the same 
spirit, there would have been very few left 
in it. 

William Burke was born in Loudoun 
County, Virginia, January 13, 1770. He was 
converted at the age of twenty-one, and 
almost immediately began to exhort, and 
soon after to preach, even without a license. 
He showed himself a man of ability from the 
very first. In argument he had few equals; 
in doctrine he was incorrupt; in character 
blameless ; and he knew how to reach the con- 
sciences and the hearts of his hearers. 
Wherever he labored he built up the Church. 
Many were the fruits of his ministry. He 
traveled large circuits and still larger dis- 
tricts, and the work prospered in his hands. 

184 



AN EPISODE OF METHODISM 



As already intimated, he was the preacher in 
charge at Cincinnati in 1811. The only 
church which the Methodists then owned was 
a small stone edifice erected where "Wesley 
Chapel now stands, on the north side of Fifth 
Street, near Broadway. It long went by the 
name of "the Stone Chnrch. " Here he 
preached three times every Snnday, and on 
Wednesday night. While stationed at this 
Church his voice failed, and became raucous 
and hollow; so that at the end of the year 
he was compelled to take a supernumerary 
relation. He never resumed active work in 
the ministry, though he often preached, and 
in his later years he was a superannuate in 
the Southern branch of Methodism. He died 
December 4, 1855, and his remains are in- 
terred in the Wesleyan Cemetery at Cum- 
minsville. A small headstone in front of the 
public vault marks the grave where he lies 
buried. 

Neither system of theology suffered by 
this controversy. It was local in its field and 

185 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



was confined mostly to the two parties rep- 
resented in it. The ill-feeling gendered by 
it speedily gave way to mutual regards and 
fraternity, and each side strove the more 
to advance the cause of religion and to bring 
souls to Christ. In this effort the Methodists 
were especially successful; for whereas the 
number in their society in 1811 was 817, in 
three years' time it was 1,033. From that 
period forward the Church in Cincinnati had 
frequent revivals, none, perhaps, in the ear- 
lier years of the century more fruitful in re- 
sults than that of 1817. 



186 



IX 



METHODISM AND TAMMANY 

At the session of the Western Conference 
in Cincinnati, in 1811, several matters of 
moment were considered and settled. Ben- 
jamin Lakin in his Diary says of this ses- 
sion: u We were several days engaged in 
the most intricate business that had ever 
been before our Conference. We had to sus- 
pend one man ; and another stood so charged 
that the Conference ordered a committee to 
inquire into his conduct. Perhaps there are 
few cases where so much painful and critical 
business is gone through with as much in 
the Christian spirit as it was now." And 
Bishop Asbury in his Journal for Sunday, 
October 6, 1811, says: ' ' We have been five 
days sitting in Conference; there has been 
weighty and critical business before us, but 

187 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



we wrought with industry and great order. ' 9 
But it was not until Friday, October 11th, 
five days after the above date, that the Con- 
ference adjourned. 

One of the items of business considered 
was an appeal from Chiliicothe on a matter 
of Church discipline; which, though of only 
local interest, engaged the attention of the 
Conference, and acquired importance from 
the standing of some of the parties thereto, 
and the question of personal rights involved. 
There had already been trouble in the so- 
ciety at Chiliicothe which had rent the 
Church into two factions; and, strange to 
say, it was not on account of heresy or eccle- 
siastical differences, but on account of poli- 
tics in civil life. 

The most assertive layman, and a leader 
of the Methodist society at that time, was 
one who, like Diotrephes among the ancient 
Christians, was fond of power, and " loved 
to have the pre-eminence. ' ' He was a man 
of some intellectual vigor, had a fair educa- 

188 



METHODISM AND TAMMANY 



tion, was a good writer, and was a zealous 
and unyielding supporter of the Methodist 
doctrine and polity. In his religious life he 
was a puritan and an ascetic. He was ac- 
customed to gauge all character and conduct 
according to his own standard of piety. 
With a small number of influential members 
of the Church who were like-minded with 
himself, he generally carried through his own 
measures for regulating and maintaining it. 
A Federalist in politics, he had no sympathy 
with the Democratic Eepublicans, whether in 
the Church or without. He even brought his 
politics into religion, and whoever was not 
in accord with his views was regarded by him 
as unworthy of fellowship and support. 

In 1809 a few Methodists who did not 
think as he did on questions of State, but 
were equally patriotic and as sound in the 
Christian faith, determined to celebrate the 
Fourth of July, without consulting him. 
About the same time a number of the other 
residents of Chillicothe held a meeting to 

189 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

make arrangements for the same purpose. 
Learning that the Methodists were already 
at work, they invited their co-operation ; and 
on their agreeing to combine their efforts, a 
committee of citizens was appointed, includ- 
ing some of the Methodists. One of the lat- 
ter was elected secretary of the joint com- 
mittee, and was instructed to publish the 
proper notices of the affair, and to issue 
special invitations for a banquet, which he 
did. Our Diotrephes was indignant. The 
fact that a Methodist was uniting with the 
people of the world, or even with members 
of other Churches, to celebrate a secular day 
in a secular manner was in his estimation an 
abandonment of the faith and a profanation 
of the name of Christian. His opposition to 
the celebration and his bitter talk against it 
induced one or two of the Methodists on the 
committee to withdraw from it. But those 
who did not coincide with his sentiments and 
dared to think for themselves, after the cele- 
bration, which was conducted in the most 

190 



METHODISM AND TAMMANY 



orderly manner, were on his complaint sum- 
moned for trial before the Church. The im- 
plied charge against them was unchristian 
conduct and a violation of the rules of the 
Discipline, though it read only thus: 

"For engaging in the celebration of the 
Fourth of July, partaking of a public dinner, 
and drinking patriotic toasts !" — 

which toasts were drunk in cold water. 
Where the horrible crime against religion 
and the Church came in for thus doing, no- 
body could see except himself and the other 
brethren who acted with him, and looked 
upon the matter with prejudiced eyes. 

The committee of trial was packed by the 
prosecutor on purpose to convict, and the 
accused members were accordingly found 
guilty of crimes alleged to be expressly for- 
hidden in the Word of God, and of sufficient 
turpitude to exclude them from the kingdom 
of grace and glory! They were uncondition- 
ally excluded from the Church. Among 

191 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



those summoned for trial was Dr. William 
McDowell, formerly an itinerant minister, 
but now a local preacher in Chillicothe. 
When his case was called, rather than suffer 
himself to be tried on so frivolous a charge, 
and especially as he foresaw what the result 
would be, he formally withdrew from the 
Church, and directed the preacher in charge, 
John Collins, who presided in the trial, to 
erase his name from the Church records. 

The expelled members did not give up 
their religion, though they were by ecclesi- 
astical censure "delivered over to Satan.' ■ 
Their appeal to the Quarterly Conference, 
which was then dominated by these leaders, 
was of no avail to restore them to member- 
ship ; and so, debarred from the privilege of 
worship in the Church, and of attending 
class, they held weekly prayer-meetings of 
their own. But even this privilege they were 
not permitted to enjoy in quietness. Some 
of the members who felt that a great wrong 
had been perpetrated, and who sympathized 

192 



METHODISM AND TAMMANY 



with them, frequently attended their meet- 
ings. But objection was made by the prose- 
cutor against this "irregular" proceeding — 
that of holding fellowship with willful and 
unrepentant sinners — and they too were 
made to feel the iron heel of the bigot and 
the oppressor. They were threatened with 
like expulsion if they did not desist. 

A few weeks after this event took place, 
Bishop Asbury came through Chillicothe on 
his way to the Western Conference, to be 
held at Cincinnati, September 30, 1809. On 
hearing an account of the transaction, per- 
haps from Governor Tiffin, he sharply re- 
proved the circuit preacher for allowing it 
to be done; but he had no power to redress 
the wrong, though he would gladly have 
done so. 

At the Annual Conference of that year, 
Solomon Langdon was appointed presiding 
elder of the Miami District, which included 
Chillicothe. Mr. Langdon was a man of 
sweet spirit, and greatly beloved by the peo- 
13 193 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

pie of his district, especially by those in 
Chillicothe, where he was blessed with a gra- 
cious revival. It began in the summer of 
1810. A few of the expelled members came 
back on probation — they were too wedded to 
the Methodist doctrine and polity to unite 
with the Episcopal or the Presbyterian 
Church; — others Mr. Langdon received into 
full membership at once; but none of them 
showed any contrition or made any acknowl- 
edgment of guilt. All this was a matter of 
great chagrin to those who had been active 
in their prosecution, and they accused Mr. 
Langdon of maladministration on his dis- 
trict, and other offenses. They drew up a 
memorial to that effect, to be presented at 
the next Annual Conference. This they cir- 
culated in town for signatures. The most 
active in these measures was our Diotrephes. 
He was the actual head and front of the 
movement. He wanted to show the distinc- 
tion between real and nominal Methodists; 
but his proceedings were brought to a sum- 

194 



METHODISM AND TAMMANY 



niary close. Bishop Asbury was again in 
Chillicothe in the fall of that year, and was 
told the whole story of these doings in de- 
tail. He exonerated Mr. Langdon, and di- 
rected the class leader — there was but one 
at that time — to bring the ring-leaders to 
trial, if they persisted, for sowing discord 
in the society. But their fault-finding with 
Mr. Langdon, and their dissensions with the 
members, produced a result they had not in- 
tended — it put a sudden stop to the revival, 
to the great detriment of the new converts 
and to the harm of the entire membership. 
The meetings became cold and lifeless; 
there was no further evident growth in 
grace; there were no more penitents at the 
altar for prayer, and no more conversions, 
or accessions to the Church. Zion had set- 
tled on its lees. 

In the year 1810 a branch of the Tam- 
many Society, or Columbian Order, was or- 
ganized in Chillicothe. The society was the 
representative of Democratic Eepublican 

195 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



principles, as opposed to those of the Feder- 
alists, and was founded in the city of New 
York with the express object of counteract- 
ing the influence of the Federal party and the 
aristocratic Society of Cincinnati. It drew 
into its membership in Chillicothe some of 
the best Methodists and other religions peo- 
ple, and held its meetings once a month. It 
did not at first meet with antagonism from 
any of the Methodist society. The Feder- 
alist members of the Church, and our Di- 
otrephes in particular, were of course op- 
posed to it; but political preferences alone 
could not be made a matter of Church no- 
tice. The leader of the dominant faction in 
the Church had not forgotten his discom- 
fiture the year before, and soon took meas- 
ures to attempt a recovery of his standing 
and influence. This he hoped to gain by 
humiliating the Tammany members, espe- 
cially those of them who had been expelled 
for celebrating the Fourth of July. 

In this effort he was assisted by another 
196 



METHODISM AND TAMMANY 



prominent Methodist, a physician, who had 
formerly been an itinerant preacher, bnt had 
located. This man had applied for member- 
ship in the society, bnt had been rejected. 
He was not considered by the Tammany 
brethren stable in his political views, and 
they did not want a waverer for an associ- 
ate. Whether after his rejection he got new 
light abont the Tammany Order, or whether 
he sought to avenge himself on the Chnrch 
members belonging to it as the authors of 
his defeat, it is certain that he used his in- 
fluence against them. He excited animosi- 
ties either by inventing or taking up false 
reports concerning them. 

The anniversary of the society occurred 
annually on the twelfth day of May, or on 
the day following if the twelfth was Sun- 
day. In 1811 the society celebrated its an- 
niversary on Monday, May 13th, with a 
"long talk" by Governor Tiffin, who was 
then the Grand Sachem, and by walking in 
procession from their "wigwam" to the 

197 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



place where a dinner was prepared, of which 
the members partook, and by responding to 
a few political and patriotic sentiments. 

All this while the Federalists of the town, 
the political opponents of the Democratic 
Republicans, were endeavoring to counteract 
the influence of the Tammany organization 
by circulating injurious reports concerning 
it. There were a few members of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church in Chillicothe, be- 
sides those mentioned, who were Federalists ; 
and to give greater effect to the political con- 
test carried on by the Federalist party with 
their opponents, they industriously set them- 
selves about exciting prejudices against their 
Tammany brethren, and fomenting un- 
friendly feelings towards them, thus creat- 
ing additional discord in the Church itself. 

The Tammany brethren, relying upon 
their conscious rectitude of conduct and their 
innocence of any just cause of offense, made 
no effort to repel these attacks upon them, 
hoping that such unreasonable prejudice 

198 



METHODISM AND TAMMANY 



would soon die away. In this they were mis- 
taken. The leaders in the persecution 
against them having succeeded in winning 
over to their side many of the Methodists of 
the town, stirred up an amount of bickering 
and disaffection, all of which was charged 
upon the Tammany brethren, though they 
were themselves the real instigators of it. 

In this state of things a meeting of the 
entire Methodist membership in town was 
called by the Eev. Ealph Lotspeich, the cir- 
cuit preacher that year, about the 17th of 
June (1811), and the whole affair was can- 
vassed and discussed. Mr. Lotspeich gave 
it as his decided opinion that to belong to 
the Tammany Society violated no order of 
the Church, and was not a matter of offense 
cognizable by any rule of the Discipline. 
Some of the members, however, who had been 
active in the persecution of the Tammany 
Methodists, offered a resolution requesting 
them to withdraw from the organization as 
a means of "restoring peace and harmony 

199 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



to the Church.' J On their part they agreed 
to be entirely satisfied with such an action, 
and to refrain from all conversation or move- 
ments in the future that might stir up ill 
feeling or give offense to the present Tam- 
many brethren. On these conditions several 
of the latter consented to withdraw from the 
Order, and did so. Probably all would have 
done the same, had they been left in quiet- 
ness ; though all reserved to themselves their 
undoubted right to defend the political views 
and the design of the Society, and to vote 
with them at the public polls. 

Scarcely had the meeting been dismissed 
when the anti-Tammany brethren began to 
taunt their victims about being compelled to 
withdraw from the society. They even kept 
on circulating their former aspersions as to 
the principles and doings of the Order, and 
as to the members themselves, perhaps be- 
lieving that they were stating the truth and 
thus glorifying God. This was their method 
of "restoring peace and harmony." Alas! 

200 



METHODISM AND TAMMANY 



how often are men deceived into a belief of 
their own sincerity, and falsehood assumes 
the garb of truth. "The heart is deceitful 
above all things. " 

To this conduct on the part of their ac- 
cusers, the Tammany brethren who had not 
withdrawn from the Order naturally ob- 
jected. Feeling aggrieved, some of them ad- 
dressed a communication to Mr. Lotspeich, 
giving details, and asking him, as preacher 
in charge, when he came to town, to put a 
stop to it. But to this communication he 
paid no attention. On the other hand, he 
ate his own words, and suffered himself to 
entertain charges of immorality against the 
Tammany brethren, on no other ground ex- 
cept simply that they were members of the 
Tammany Order. These charges were made 
against Governor Edward Tiffin and a few 
other laymen. The principal crime alleged 
was "Idolatry;" and the sole specification 
was, "In being members of a society desig- 
nated by the name of a heathen, and cele- 

201 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



brating the anniversary of an Indian chief, 
Tammany, on the 13th day of May last ! ' ? 

A committee, every one of whom was 
known to be inimical to the Tammanyites, 
was appointed by the circuit preacher to try 
these brethren. After hearing the state- 
ments of the prosecutor and the other ac- 
cusers, without allo wing any explanation or 
testimony in defense, and without any proof 
of the crime of idolatry, they found the ac- 
cused guilty. Governor Tiffin being a local 
preacher was suspended by Mr. Lotspeich 
from all ministerial functions, and the others 
were expelled. 

To show somewhat of the character of 
these high-handed and arbitrary proceed- 
ings, it may be proper to state that one of 
the accused was not notified by the preacher 
of the charges against him until 9 o'clock at 
night, near his hour for retiring, when he 
was summoned to appear before the com- 
mittee for immediate trial. Being old and in- 
firm, it was not prudent for him to attend 

202 



METHODISM AND TAMMANY 

at such an unseasonable hour, and he asked 
that his trial be postponed until a time when 
he could appear. This request was refused, 
and his case was called up, in his absence, 
after midnight. His guilt was taken as con- 
fessed because he was not present to answer, 
and he was expelled. Mr. Lotspeich, who 
presided at the trial, demanded of another, 
when the charge was read against him, that 
he prove his innocence, saying that "they 
had already heard enough of Tammany." 
Though no testimony was introduced to es- 
tablish his guilt — it was not even proved 
against him that he was a member of the 
Tammany Society — the prosecutor insisted 
that it had been clearly shown by the testi- 
mony in the cases which preceded. The ac- 
cused had heard none of it, and of course 
could not rebut it — only the person on trial 
being allowed to face the preacher and the 
committee when his name was called. How 
his guilt was proved he never knew; but he 
also was expelled. 

203 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

One of the committee of trial had weeks 
before said that if any of the Tammany 
brethren were put on trial for being mem- 
bers of that society, and he was appointed 
on the committee, he should vote for their 
expulsion from the Church on general prin- 
ciples, without a word of testimony against 
them. He was not a judge, but a hangman; 
and the prosecutor and the circuit preacher 
took care that none but hangmen should act 
on the committee. Their expulsion was deter- 
mined upon beforehand; and the preacher 
was weak enough to lend himself to the ar- 
rangement. With him the half was greater 
than the whole. 

Ealph Lotspeich was a good man, earnest 
in the work of the ministry, but with little 
education and of slender attainments. He 
knew the plan of salvation and was able to 
present it. Under his ministry souls were 
converted and brought into the Church. He 
understood Methodist doctrine and could tell 
the story of the Cross; but he had no ju- 

204 



METHODISM AND TAMMANY 

dicial ability and no discursive faculty. His 
views were narrow; he was easily biased for 
or against any principle or person by others 
of stronger mind, and he was quick to decide 
questions on partial information. He was a. 
follower rather than a leader. For this rea- 
son he did not secure the controlling influ- 
ence he might have gained in the circuits 
which he traveled. Though his style was fer- 
vent and his heart sincere, he never became 
more than a second-rate preacher. In Chil- 
licothe there was a large Democratic Bepub- 
lican element, even in the Church circles; 
but Mr. Lotspeich unconsciously became the 
tool of the Federalists. He, like them, clung 
to old measures. They adhered to the past. 
They did not know that the Nation had for 
long been throwing off its clogs and assert- 
ing its freedom from traditions and prece- 
dents. President Madison, though commenc- 
ing a Federalist, was now entertaining dem- 
ocratic views and conforming his administra- 
tion to more popular ideas; but these men 

205 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

changed never. What was good enough for 
the fathers was good enough for them. They 
were strenuous believers in the doctrine of 
letting well enough alone. If their ancestors 
carried their meal on horseback from the 
mill in one end of the sack, with a stone in 
the other to balance it, they would not adopt 
the witty method of the boy who divided 
the meal equally between the two ends and 
threw away the stone. They knew no such 
word as progress. 

Yet these brethren who united in perse- 
cuting their fellow members and severing all 
fraternal relations between them were pious 
and devoted Methodists, and followers of 
their Lord. With their conscientious but un- 
educated views of the religion of Jesus and 
the welfare of the Church, they endeavored 
to purge it of what they esteemed to be dross. 
They were faithful in the discharge of their 
duties toward it, taking part in the public 
services, punctual in their attendance upon 
preaching, the class and prayer meetings, 

206 



METHODISM AND TAMMANY 



and other means of grace, and contributing 
of their means to the support of the gospel. 
But this zeal was not according to knowl- 
edge. Their self-satisfaction was supreme, 
and their ignorance was greater than their 
humility. How often the Spirit of God can 
dwell in hearts and homes where we can not 
dwell! 

The lay members of the Tammany So- 
ciety who were expelled appealed from the 
decision of the committee that tried them, 
and the action of the circuit preacher, to the 
Quarterly Conference. The Conference, not 
being now under the domination of the anti- 
Tammany clique, restored them to member- 
ship. Dr. Tiffin appealed to the Annual Con- 
ference, which was to meet that year in Cin- 
cinnati. Of this appeal and of the appellant 
we shall now proceed to give some account. 

Edward Tiffin was a native of Carlisle, 
Cumberland County, England, where he was 
born June 19, 1766. He began the study 
of medicine at an early age, and in 1784 came 

207 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



to the United States and settled in Charles- 
town, Berkeley County, Virginia. Having 
finished his medical studies, he began the 
practice of his profession, in which he was 
eminently successful. He married in 1789, 
and in the year following both himself and 
wife were converted and united with the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. Immediately 
after being received into the Church he be- 
came convinced of his call to the work of 
the ministry, and without waiting for a li- 
cense began to preach. His preaching was 
pathetic and powerful. Two years subse- 
quently he was ordained a local deacon by 
Bishop Asbury, and in 1796 removed to Chil- 
licothe, then a small village, where he built 
the first house that had a shingle roof. 

In the autumn of 1799, Dr. Tiffin was 
elected a member from Eoss County of the 
Territorial Legislature; and in 1802, when 
delegates to the convention which framed the 
first constitution of the State of Ohio were 
chosen, he was one of them. On the assem- 

208 



METHODISM AND TAMMANY 



bling of the convention he was made its pres- 
ident; and on the admission of the State into 
the Union he was elected the first governor. 
During all his public life Dr. Tiffin remained 
a loyal Methodist, and often exercised his 
gifts as a preacher and class leader. 

He did not endure religion, he enjoyed 
it. His manner was cordial, and he put 
strangers at once at their ease when they 
were thrown into his company. He was 
never light or trifling in his demeanor. His 
spirit was cheerful and serene. He was 
never the creature of impulse, but of prin- 
ciple and stability. His temperament was 
sanguine; he could not sit down and plod at 
his work, but was accustomed to dispatch at 
once what his hand found to do. "What he 
could not do with a flirt, ' ' said one of his ad- 
versaries, "he could not do at all." Yet he 
was steadfast in his convictions, never ham- 
pered by prejudices, methodical in his life, 
exemplary in his conduct, an ever-growing, 
progressive and aspiring Christian. 
14 209 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



As Chillicothe was the seat of govern- 
ment of the State of Ohio in 1811, and its 
population was continually increasing, it was 
recognized as a place of some importance; 
and the appeal of Governor Tiffin to the An- 
nual Conference of that year was carefully 
considered. Bishops Asbury and McKen- 
dree were both present. The sessions were 
held behind closed doors. Joseph S. Collins 
was the counsel for Dr. Tiffin. He was a 
local preacher, proprietor of the Scioto Ga- 
zette, a man of versatility, and greatly re- 
spected for his genuine worth. The argu- 
ments he presented for the reversal of the 
action of the preacher and the special com- 
mittee of the Church which tried him were 
substantially as follows: 

1. The committee which tried the doctor 
was not legally constituted, and its action 
was therefore null and void. It consisted of 
three class leaders (one of whom had been 
appointed as such only six days antecedently 
to the trial) and two local preachers; 

210 



METHODISM AND TAMMANY 



whereas the Discipline required for the trial 
of a local preacher at least three of that 
order if they conld conveniently be procured. 
Of these there were then resident in town 
more than that number, and in the adjoining 
part of the circuit others who could have 
been easily summoned by the preacher for 
this purpose. 

2. One of the charges against Dr. Tiffin 
was made by a man who had been justly ex- 
pelled from the connection, and was not a 
member of the Church when they were pre- 
sented. Besides, he was known to be per- 
sonally inimical to the doctor; yet Mr. Lot- 
speich admitted it against him. 

3. His case was tried in his absence, and 
when he was confined at home on a sick-bed. 
It was impossible for him to be present at 
the trial, and he was not willfully absent. 
He requested that it should be postponed 
until he could answer in person; but no at- 
tention was paid to this reasonable request, 
and he was found guilty. Such a course of 

211 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



action is not in keeping with the Golden Bule, 
and is at variance with all the laws of juris- 
prudence, and also with the Discipline, which 
require that the accuser and the accused shall 
meet face to face. 

4. The charge of idolatry is farcical, and 
the specification irrelevant — simply celebrat- 
ing the birthday of an Indian chieftain. The 
other charges which have been presented be- 
fore the Conference are of no weightier im- 
portance, nor have they been established by 
proof; and not one of them constitutes a 
crime, in the view of any reasonable man, 
sufficient to exclude him from the kingdom 
of grace and glory. 

Mr. Collins made an able and eloquent plea 
for the reversal of the action of the commit- 
tee in the case ; and when the vote was taken 
in the Conference, Doctor Tiffin was triumph- 
antly vindicated and restored to his stand- 
ing and privileges in the Church. 

This ended the Tammany case, but it did 
not restore brotherly affection and harmony 

212 



METHODISM AND TAMMANY 



in the society at Chillicothe. Both parties 
kept the peace, but they did not coalesce. 
The Tammany Order was soon afterwards 
dissolved, not by any formal action on the 
part of its adherents, but by general consent 
and the indifference of the members. Many 
of them no longer attended its meetings. 
The war with Great Britain had broken out, 
and numbers of both Federalists and Dem- 
ocratic Eepublicans entered the army. 
Party politics were merged into patriotism. 
Tammany in Ohio had fulfilled its mission, 
and there was no longer need of its existence 
to antagonize Federalism. It died of inani- 
tion, and now there is scarcely the memory 
of it left. Many who have read the history 
of Ohio never knew that it once had a local 
habitation and a name in the State, yet there 
were branches of it in various places in Ohio. 
None of them outlived "the era of good 
feeling.'' 

It would have been better for the Church 
if the Tammany Methodists, when they were 

213 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

first assailed, however unreasonably, had 
quietly withdrawn from the society. By so 
doing they would not have offended the weak 
consciences and the still weaker judgments 
of their brethren; but they stood on their 
rights. They did not consider that though 
6 6 all things were lawful unto them, all things 
were not expedient;" and so some of them 
looked upon the matter in after years. 

The Church survived the feuds which em- 
bittered the two sections, and there was at 
times religious interest among the members. 
The class-meetings and prayer-meetings 
were well attended, and the efforts of the 
circuit preachers were blessed to the good 
of all. But there was no sweeping revival 
of religion until 1818-19 under the labors of 
William Swayze. An account of this revival 
is given elsewhere. The effects of it were 
overwhelming. All hearts were fused into 
one. There was no more division among the 
members ; they worked together as seeing eye 
to eye, and gave glory to ' 6 the Lord and Mas- 
ter of us all." 214 



X 



A METHODIST LAW CASE 

(CINCINNATI, 1831.) 

When the first Methodist class was estab- 
lished in Cincinnati, there were only eight 
members ; but so rapid was the growth of the 
Church that in less than two years after its 
planting it was determined to secure ground 
and erect a building for worship upon it. 
The leaders of the society accordingly con- 
tracted with James Kirby for the purchase 
of lots 18 and 19 on the northwest corner of 
Fifth Street and Broadway, at that period in 
the outskirts of the city, and lying in the 
midst of open fields. 

Kirby 's deed was dated September 25, 
1805, and the grant was made by himself 
and wife to William Lynes, Eobert Eichard- 
son, Christopher Smith, James Gibson, and 

215 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

James Kirby, as trustees, for the sole pur- 
pose of erecting and maintaining thereon "a 
house, or place of worship, for the use of 
the members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church of the United States of America. 7 ' 
A like deed from the same persons cover- 
ing the same premises, with some additional 
ground, was made October 17, 1807. On this 
ground, so purchased, the first Methodists 
put up a neat and convenient chapel, and in 
process of time a school-room and a par- 
sonage. The chapel was of stone, and occu- 
pied nearly the site of the present structure, 
Wesley Chapel. The parsonage was on the 
north side of the lot, fronting on Broadway. 
The school-room was framed of wood and 
stood to the east of the chapel, where after- 
wards the "Preachers' Office" was built. 

The ground purchased being large, and 
the buildings occupying only a small por- 
tion of the lots, the trustees set apart the 
remainder of the same for the purposes of 
burial. Most of the graves were dug along 

216 



A METHODIST LAW CASE 



the north line of the premises, which were 
laid out in fifteen ranges ; and here many of 
the pioneers of Methodism in Cincinnati were 
interred. Bnrials were at first confined to 
members of the Church, and their families; 
privilege was afterwards granted to others 
to inter therein upon the payment of a small 
fee. For over twenty years this ground was 
used as a graveyard. Meanwhile Methodism 
grew from a class of eight to a membership 
of fifteen hundred. In 1812, when the earli- 
est records were made, two hundred and nine 
persons were enrolled upon the Church 
books; in 1830 twelve hundred and fifty 
names were reported to Conference. After 
this date there were no further interments 
in the ground. 

When the old stone house became too 
small to hold the congregations, an addition 
of brick was built in the rear. This being 
wider than the original, the shape of the en- 
larged house was that of a capital T. It 
was lighted at night with candles, and as the 

217 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



doors and windows were small and the sub- 
ject of ventilation was then little thought of, 
we may imagine how the preacher suffered 
and the audience became drowsy as the light 
grew dim and the air stifling. 

The brick enlargement of the church was 
only a temporary make-shift, as it proved; 
and before the close of the third decade of 
Cincinnati Methodism the necessity of a new 
house of worship became apparent. For the 
better security of their property, and to save 
the trouble of new conveyances as the first 
trustees died, the society became incorpo- 
rated; and Mr. Kirby granted to nine trus- 
tees as an incorporate body, and as succes- 
sors of the original five, a new deed to the 
premises they were then occupying. This 
deed was dated June 29, 1821, reciting the 
former deeds in substance, and expressing 
the same trust as in the first deed. The new 
trustees were Oliver M. Spencer, Ezekiel 
Hall, William Lynes, William Disney, Ben- 
jamin Mason, Eobert Eichardson, Christo- 

218 



A METHODIST LAW CASE 



plier Smith, John Wood, and John Tuttle — 
venerable and well-known names in our local 
Church history. Henceforth their successors 
were to be elected by a vote of the adult male 
members of the society. The Church still 
grew and prospered, and it was finally de- 
termined to pull down and build greater. 

In digging for the foundations of the new 
edifice (now Wesley Chapel) it became nec- 
essary to take up the remains of some of 
the dead interred in the rear. The trustees 
gave notice that unless the relatives and 
friends of the dead came forward and re- 
moved the remains, together with the mon- 
uments over the graves, they would proceed 
to do so themselves. No objection seems 
at first to have been made, though the mat- 
ter had been talked of for two or three years, 
when the old house was torn down and the 
digging was commenced. Suddenly at the 
suit of one or two of the parties interested, 
a provisional injunction was obtained against 
the trustees, and the work was suspended. 

219 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

At the May term of the Supreme Court of 
Ohio for 1831 the case was argued before 
Judges Peter Hitchcock and John C. Wright. 
James S. Gazlay, Bellamy Storer, and 
Charles Fox were counsel for the complain- 
ants; Moses Brooks counsel for the defend- 
ants. It was contended that, inasmuch as 
the trustees had granted the use of the 
ground for interments, it was a dedication 
of the same to that object, and the easement 
thus permitted could not be avoided without 
the consent of the owners ; that the complain- 
ants owned an easement, and so far had an 
interest in the perpetual use of the ground 
for burial. On the other hand it was argued 
that the complainants, not being members 
of the Methodist society, and not contribut- 
ing anything towards the payment, had no 
interest in the ground at the time of its pur- 
chase in 1805 ; that they got no interest after- 
wards, because the deeds were recorded and 
expressed the particular trust to be for the 
purpose of erecting a meeting-house, and 

220 



A METHODIST LAW CASE 

not for a burying-ground ; that no act of the 
trustees or members in Cincinnati could 
amount to a dedication of the trust prop- 
erty to any other uses than those expressed 
in the deeds ; and that if there were a dedi- 
cation of the ground for burial purposes, 
the dedication must be to the public, and 
not to a part of the public; there can not be 
a partial dedication. 

After a full and patient hearing of the 
case, in which the learned counsel on both 
sides exhibited a large share of legal acumen 
and ability, the Court dissolved the injunc- 
tion. It says that the trustees had a legal 
and equitable right, under Kirby's deed of 
trust, to determine in good faith the neces- 
sity of erecting a new church or place of 
worship, its dimensions and site, having re- 
gard to the convenient enjoyment by the so- 
ciety of the lots for the purpose of the grant; 
that in order to execute the trust fairly they 
might so far interfere with the interments 
made on the lots as should be necessary to 

221 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



lay the foundation of the new structure ; and 
in executing their work they might disinter 
and decently remove the remains of any dead 
within such limits — forbearing, of course, 
any act that might shock the feelings of sur- 
viving friends or the public. 

About this time the Methodists procured 
ground elsewhere for burial purposes. They 
first selected a parcel of land near the cor- 
ner of Plum and Canal Streets, but this was 
given up on account of the subsequent loca- 
tion of the canal, and they purchased a tract 
of four acres on Catharine, now Court Street, 
west of Central Avenue, from Abijah W. Cut- 
ter. This tract in 1830 seemed a long way 
out, and was surrounded by cultivated fields, 
woods, and orchards. Along side of these 
grounds the Baptists and Eoman Catholics 
selected strips of land for interments, as it 
was then customary for the various Churches 
to have burial places of their own. There 
were already small graveyards in connection 
with other Church buildings, the oldest of 

222 



A METHODIST LAW CASE 



which was that of the Presbyterians, on the 
north side of Fourth street, between Main 
and "Walnut. It was not until a later day 
that the public became interested in having 
a rural cemetery not under denominational 
control. 

Many of the dead were now removed. In 
the old graveyard were first interred the 
parents of Oliver M. Spencer, whose resi- 
dence was immediately north of the church, 
on Sixth Street. He owned all the ground 
between Broadway and Sycamore. On one 
side of his house was his garden; on the 
other he had fruits and flowers, with an 
ample lawn. His lot extended back to the 
old Wesley Chapel ground, and his family 
graves were close to the fence between the 
two. They were among the earliest that 
were there made. 

The Sunday-school children sometimes 
wandered about in the churchyard before the 
hour for preaching, but they were too full 
of young life to indulge in any ' ' Meditations 

223 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

among the Tombs," as James Hervey did. 
And yet the monuments with their quaint 
shapes and their simple inscriptions would 
have furnished themes for the moralist if 
he had cared to use them. Here lay in 
dreamless sleep the bodies of parents and 
children, young men and maidens, ministers 
and laymen, with their names and dates 
carved on the headstones, and those of the 
nameless and unmarked dead, now forgotten 
and uncared for. When fifty years after this 
date the Wesley Chapel charge erected in the 
rear of the church a Sunday-school room 
above ground, on a level with the floor of 
the main audience-room, and other apart- 
ments for class and official meetings, some of 
the graves were covered by the new building, 
but none of the dead were removed. They 
yet lie there, beneath the tread of childish 
feet. The rest of the ground was smoothed 
off and made into an open court, the stones 
were buried beneath the surface, and the 
ground was leveled for the use of the young 

224 



A METHODIST LAW CASE 



people who belonged to the congregation. 
Better would it be if it had been planted 
with trees and shrubbery, so as to make a 
little bit of greenery in the midst of high 
brick walls and fences. But the dead have 
no rights, and practical utility dominates 
over sentiment. Alas for our lack of rever- 
ence and solemnity in the presence of death ! 
Alas that a spot where lie the dead should 
be made a ground for out-door sports ! 

How many bodies were buried in this lit- 
tle graveyard, and how many were removed 
to other grounds, it is impossible to state. 
We can mention a few, however, whose dust 
is yet there, mingling with its parent earth. 
The following are some of the names chis- 
eled on the tombs left in the ground, which 
the writer well remembers to have seen in his 
younger years : 

"Mrs. Dolly Camp, consort of Jesse 
Camp and daughter of William Butler, died 
February — , 1810, aged twenty-two years." 
15 225 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



This was one of the oldest graves in the 
ground. 

"Rev. Solomon Langdon died October 8, 
1816, aged thirty- nine years." Mr. Langdon 
had located two or three years prior to his 
death, on account of failing health, and fam- 
ily concerns. He was born in Massachusetts 
and began to preach in his twenty-second 
year. He came to Ohio in 1806. His funeral 
sermon was preached in the Stone Church 
to a large congregation by Oliver M. Spen- 
cer, from Isa. lv, 6. Mr. Spencer was a lo- 
cal preacher. 

"Mrs. Kituel McCaine, wife of Rev. Alex- 
ander McCaine, died May, 17, 1815, in her 
forty-first year." Her husband was long an 
itinerant in the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
but became a leader in the Methodist Prot- 
estant movement, and was the author of sev- 
eral controversial books on the subject of 
episcopacy, and the mutual rights of the 
clergy and the people. The best known of 
these is his "History and Mystery of Meth- 

226 



A METHODIST LAW CASE 



odist Episcopacy " — an invective against our 
Church polity and government, but as an ar- 
gument ill-considered and unfair. It was in 
answer to this work that Bishop Emory 
wrote his "Defense of Our Fathers." Mr. 
McCaine died in Edgefield County, S. C, 
June 1, 1856, aged 84 years. 

"Sacred to the Memory of Eev. Alexan- 
der Cummins. Died September 27, 1823, in 
the thirty-sixth year of his age. Born in Vir- 
ginia ; joined the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in 1807; commenced preaching in 1809; was 
traveling preacher fourteen years. " 

"Eev. Learner Blackman. Born in New 
Jersey in 1781; entered the traveling min- 
istry in 1801; died in Cincinnati June 7, 
1815." He had been on a visit to Ohio, and 
was on his return to his work in the South. 
He was about to cross the Ohio River in a 
ferry-boat, when his horses which he was 
holding by the bridles became frightened at 
the noise of the machinery, and in their con- 
fusion leaped into the water, dragging him 

227 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



overboard with them. The current was 
swift, and before he could be rescued he was 
drowned. 

6 6 Henrietta A., daughter of William B. 
and Elizabeth Shalley, died November 29, 
1821, aged twenty-five years. " 

"Edwin L. Page died August 21, 1826." 
His son Edwin, aged three years, died Au- 
gust 30th of the same year, and was buried 
in the same grave with his father. 

"John Collins, son of John and Julia M. 
Whetstone, died August 21, 1820, aged three 
years. 9 9 This was probably the first child of 
his parents, and the oldest brother of John 
L. Whetstone, whose widow Sarah M. Young 
Whetstone gave such a large portion of her 
estate to the "Old People's Home," on Col- 
lege Hill. 

"Mrs. Hannah Hunt died February 18, 
1819, aged forty-five years." 

"William Langarl died August 1, 1822, 
aged eighteen years." It was probably his 

228 



A METHODIST LAW CASE 



father who purchased the corner on Broad- 
way, adjoining the church. 

"Samuel Dryden died January 13, 1827, 
aged seventeen years." 

"Benjamin Mull died March 25, 1827, 
aged forty-two years." 

"Sacred to the Memory of Robert P. 
Wraith, who was accidentally killed by the 
machinery on the steamboat Scioto January 
29, A. D. 1825, in the thirty-third year of his 
age. 

"In sincere friendship I this tribute raise 
To tell his fate and shortness of his days." 

He probably died among strangers, and some 
friend had his remains decently buried, and 
erected a stone with this inscription at his 
grave. 

Nearly all of these inscriptions here given 
were preceded with the words "In Memory 
of" or "Sacred to the Memory of," but we 
have omitted them, except in one or two in- 
stances. 

229 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



Eev. Adbeel Coleman, James Wescoat, 
Abby Keeler, a native of Washington City, 
and a few others whose graves were marked 
by headstones, were here interred, but we 
can not now record their epitaphs. Their 
names are written in the Book of Life, and 
"when the roll is called up yonder/' those 
who bore them will respond to them ; and all 
who are unknown here will be known there. 
To that day all are hastening. 

"Maranatha; — the Lord cometh." 



230 



XI 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 

(Ohio Wesley an University) 

The term university as originally applied 
to an educational institution did not desig- 
nate the range of subjects taught, which at 
first embraced only the trivium and quad- 
rivium of the schoolmen, or grammar, logic, 
and rhetoric of the one faculty, and arith- 
metic, music, geometry, and astronomy of 
the other; but it denoted the whole body 
(universitas) of the students. In the large 
continental universities there were students 
from various principalities, speaking differ- 
ent languages or dialects— French, Italian, 
Spanish, German, etc. — and they naturally 
formed groups according to the States from 
which they came ; and these collectively made 
the university. Now, we apply the term 

231 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

not to the body of the students, but to the 
entirety of the studies. These are divided 
among five general departments — liberal 
arts, theology, law, medicine, and State's 
economy. Besides, there are subdivisions; 
but the general departments comprehend the 
various groups of colleges, each, perhaps, 
with its own faculty and board of adminis- 
tration. Thus the department of liberal arts 
comprises what are technically called the 
humanities, the natural sciences, mathemat- 
ics, metaphysics, civics, mechanics and tech- 
nology, and various other subjects. A few 
of these alone may constitute a university in 
the modern sense. Accordingly, many a 
country cross-roads academy styles itself a 
university and confers degrees. The true 
idea of a university, however, is rather the 
increase than the dissemination of knowl- 
edge. For many years the great universi- 
ties have given instruction in only a few 
branches of learning, and have left all the 
others, together with law, medicine, and the- 

232 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



ology to be taught in institutions of their 
own. 

The Ohio Wesleyan University, at Dela- 
ware, was first opened for pupils in the fall 
of 1844, though a preparatory school had 
been conducted by authority of the trustees 
for two years prior to this date. This was 
in charge of Solomon Howard, who paid his 
expenses from the fees charged for tuition. 
At that time the town was almost inaccess- 
ible except during the summer and early 
autumn months. There was a stage line 
from Columbus to Sandusky, but in winter 
the regular coaches were withdrawn, and 
canvas-covered wagons were substituted in 
their place. They were constructed, how- 
ever, to carry passengers and their baggage, 
but they were cold and uncomfortable, espe- 
cially in rainy weather, when the curtains 
had to be fastened down to keep the inside 
from getting wet. When the mud was deep 
the wheels often sank in the road-bed up to 
the hubs. The ruts too, in the track, were 

233 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



uneven, the wagons tilting up on one side 
or the other alternately, and scarcely ever 
for more than one or two rods retaining a 
level position. They were in constant dan- 
ger of overturning with their passengers and 
freight. 

I well recall the first time that I trav- 
eled over this road. It was a rainy day in 
the winter of 1845-46 that we entered the 
coach at Columbus for Delaware. The trip 
was begun soon after breakfast, and it re- 
quired the entire day to reach our destina- 
tion, only twenty-four miles away. It was 
dark and dismal when the stage stopped at 
the old mansion house, as the university 
building was called, to deliver some of its 
occupants and their trunks. The rain fell 
incessantly, and there were no lights. The 
driver of the coach had a single lantern; 
but everything was finally adjusted; and 
so I spent my first night in Delaware. 
Most of the passengers were sore and tired 
from the continual lurching and the bump- 

234 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



ing they had experienced in the stage. The 
"turnpike," as it was called, was nothing 
but a bed of mire. Of this road one of my 
friends wrote (or quoted) : 

"The road was impassable— 
Not even jackassable; 
And all those who travel it 
Should turn out and gravel it." 

The company which had secured a charter 
for the turnpike did some grading, and had 
thrown up a road-bed of clay, but they spread 
no metal — broken stones or gravel — upon it, 
yet they began to collect tolls for its use. 
Such was the indignation of the residents 
along the route at this imposition that they 
formed a mob, tore down all the toll-houses, 
destroyed the gates, and warned the keepers 
not to attempt to receive toll. The charter 
was soon after annulled, and the road be- 
came worse than ever. 

At this date there were no paved streets 
in Delaware and but few brick or stone side- 

235 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

walks. Indeed, there was so little traffic that 
the streets were not cut up into deep ruts, 
and so needed but little macadamizing to 
keep them comparatively smooth. But the 
roads leading out from the town into the 
country sometimes became almost impassable 
for wagons on account of the mud. There 
were n@? sidewalks constructed south of 
William Street; and every winter the stu- 
dents clubbed together and had spent tan- 
bark hauled from the tanneries and spread 
all the way from the college doors as far 
up as to William Street. There were two 
tanyards where this material could be ob- 
tained — John Wolfley's, on Winter Street, 
near Henry, and James W. Lee's, on the 
northwest corner of Franklin and Griswold 
(now Central Avenue). This was a tempo- 
rary expedient, of course, but it served to 
keep the feet out of the mire during the 
season. 

There was a small brick market-house in 
the center of William Street, just west of 

236 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



Sandusky, where fresh meats were sold on 
stated days, but no fruits or vegetables, or 
scarcely none. These could be procured at 
the groceries; though very few perishable 
vegetables, such as lettuce, radishes, onion- 
sprouts, etc., were exposed for sale any- 
where. Housekeepers depended upon their 
own gardens for such truck as isfnow com- 
monly found at the green-grocer's. The 
meat market opened very early in the morn- 
ing, and closed early; and the purchaser who 
wanted a choice cut of beef or pork (mutton 
was very rarely found) must needs go be- 
times to the butcher's stall, for otherwise 
he might not find what he wanted — some one 
else had been before him. It is the early 
bird that catches the worm. 

A Cincinnati butcher once asked me what 
I thought about his opening a meat-shop in 
Delaware, and whether it would probably 
succeed. I told him I thought he would do 
well there ; but he was fearful of undertak- 
ing the enterprise, and did not come. He 

237 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



found that he would have to slaughter his 
own beasts, and could with difficulty pro- 
cure ice in sufficient quantity to preserve his 
meats in warm weather. The large refrig- 
erators were not then in use. 

Delaware was only a country village in 
the midst of forests and open fields. All 
around it were farm lands, with orchards and 
cleared spots for tillage and pasture. In 
North Delaware were thickets of hazel 
bushes, where the boys and girls could gather 
nuts when the frosts fell in the autumn. 
West of town the extensive woods were a 
good place for hunting game, and the 6 6 Cop- 
peras Banks" on the south was a favorite 
spot for a picnic. Through the dell a little 
stream of clear water flowed, with a precip- 
itous bank of shale on one side, and corn 
fields, woods, and pastures on the other. Here 
the wild hyacinth and other flowers grew in 
abundance. A short distance up this stream 
in the woods was a mill-dam and a saw-mill, 
operated in the winter and spring when there 

238 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 

was a good flow of water. On Delaware Bun, 
just west of Liberty Street, and not far 
from the present schoolhouse, there was also 
a mill-dam and a saw-mill, which did a good 
amount of business. This run sometimes de- 
veloped into a large creek, and overflowed the 
low grounds of the college, submerging them 
almost to the sulphur spring. 

There was very little manufacturing done 
in town, except to supply the local demands. 
The business dealers were able to supply the 
country precincts with all the groceries, dry 
goods, and hardware that were in demand. 
Most of them kept what are now known as 
department stores, though a few had only 
one line of commodities. Thus at the same 
shop one might purchase a hat or a codfish, 
a pattern of calico or a bushel of potatoes, 
a quire of paper or a ham of pork, a school- 
book or a jug of molasses. There was a 
woollen mill at the north end of the town, 
and a paper mill just below Delaware, at 
Stratford, where a fine quality of printing 

239 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



or writing, wrapping and book paper, was 
manufactured. In process of time a foundry 
was established, and a factory for making 
envelopes, and later other factories. 

The tanneries were constantly busy. Sev- 
eral hardware stores were located on San- 
dusky Avenue, and nearly all business was 
confined to that street. There were several 
boot and shoe shops, as many of tailors' 
shops, one wagon shop, and some iron 
smithies. There was at least one livery es- 
tablishment, and two or three warehouses, 
furniture, and wood-working shops. Several 
teamsters were constantly employed in haul- 
ing merchandise from Columbus; for, until 
railroads were built, all transportation was 
done by wagons. Teams and vehicles could 
be hired at any time. 

It was never the policy of the university 
to furnish rooms and common boarding for 
the pupils. Delaware was a country town, 
having no railroad facilities; and not much 
trade was attracted to the place. Of course, 

240 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



the farmers in the vicinity depended on the 
merchants of the town to buy their prod- 
acts, and to supply them with groceries and 
dry goods in exchange, and the staples of 
living were abundant and cheap. Students 
in the early days could procure boarding for 
$1.50 or $1.75 a week. This included every- 
thing at first, even washing; and there were 
many families that took in boarders to add 
to their income. There were rooms in the 
old college building — Elliott Hall — and in the 
Annex, a two-story structure attached to it 
on the south, which furnished accommoda- 
tions for a few of the students; and here a 
steward, with his family, was employed to 
supply them boarding. This arrangement 
continued for two or three years. 

There was also a row of cottages, facing 
north, nearly in front of where Sturges Hall 
now stands, with eight or ten rooms; and 
here a few of the students boarded them- 
selves. Some of them lived on less than forty 
cents a week. Fuel was not over $2 a cord ; 
16 241 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

eggs could be procured at five cents a dozen ; 
butter was not worth more than ten cents a 
pound, and bakeries furnished bread and 
rolls at moderate prices. When fruit was 
in season, pears could be bought at ten cents 
a peck; apples at fifteen cents a bushel, and 
peaches at twelve or thirteen cents a large 
basketful. Cured meats were sold at, per- 
haps, six cents a pound; cornmeal was to be 
had at a few cents a peck, and milk at five 
cents a quart. Most of the young men who 
boarded themselves were from the country, 
where they had learned something of domes- 
tic work, and were thus handy in preparing 
their frugal meals. 

Below the spring was a large bath-house, 
with zinc bathing tubs, which were intended 
for and could be filled with sulphur water. 
There was also a log hut on Henry Street, 
facing east, and directly east of the college 
building, afterward occupied by the colored 
janitor. On the southeast was a small cot- 
tage of two large rooms that had been used 

242 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



for billiards and card-playing when the place 
was a health resort. This cottage was after- 
ward rented and occupied by Mrs. Maria 
Webb and her family of two sons and a 
daughter, who came from Chillicothe to Dela- 
ware on account of its educational advan- 
tages. To adapt it to her needs, she added 
to it a board kitchen and shed, and divided 
one of the rooms with a partition, so as to 
form a separate bed chamber and a dining- 
room. 

Between this cottage and the college build- 
ing there was an ice-house and milk cellar, 
constructed underground. It was directly 
south of the present Merrick Hall. It was 
dug into the bank facing north, and was 
made of logs and stone, and sodded over. 

In the rear of the college building were 
two long porches, one on the ground floor, 
where the boys had a rope swing, and one 
on the second, without a roof over it, but 
constructed like a balcony, and protected 
with a balustrade. The building was lathed 

243 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



on the outside and plastered, making it thus 
resemble stone or concrete, and painted of 
a light terra-cotta color. In this building 
were the recitation-rooms, and the private 
rooms of the professors. The chapel was on 
the ground floor — formerly the dining-room 
of the establishment. Here the school was 
opened and closed every day with religious 
exercises — Scripture reading, singing, and 
prayer — at which all of the students were 
required to be present. There was ample 
room to contain them all, for the number did 
not exceed one hundred and twenty-five per- 
sons. 

Every Sunday afternoon a lecture was 
delivered by the president or one of the pro- 
fessors, and sometimes by a visiting clergy- 
man. On one occasion a minister was in- 
vited to lecture for the students, and in his 
opening prayer he said : " 0 God, our Father, 
help Thy servant this day to address these 
young men here assembled; give him right 
words and right thoughts. Direct him in the 

244 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



choice of a text from which to speak. Let 
him so perceive the truths of Thy gospel, 
and so declare Thy word, that he may profit 
those who hear." And then, on rising to 
preach, he pulled out a manuscript from his 
breast pocket, and read from it every word 
that he spoke! 

At a convocation of the clergy, where one 
of them, who had been appointed the year 
previously to deliver the annual address, 
read his sermon, as the ministers present 
were passing out of the audience-room, one 
of them said to another : 

"How did you like the discourse?" 

"Well," responded the person addressed, 
"with the help of God, I believe I could have 
preached as good a sermon as that myself." 

"God or no God," rejoined the first, "I 
know I could." 

Our lecturer probably was somewhat of 
the same opinion. He answered his own 
prayer by depending on himself — and his 
manuscript. 

245 



EABLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

As the students were scattered over the 
whole town, and the sound of the college bell 
could be heard only a short distance away, 
every one was compelled to have a watch of 
his own, or to depend upon that of his room- 
mate, or the clock at his boarding place. To 
keep the time correct, the courthouse bell was 
rung every evening at nine o'clock. This 
time was furnished to the ringer, I believe, 
by the leading jeweler and watchmaker, Kay- 
mond Burr, afterwards the mayor of Dela- 
ware, and an officer in the army during the 
Civil War. As he had no transit instrument 
he depended on his standard chronometer, 
which varied but little in the year, if at all, 
from the exact time. So every one who car- 
ried a watch could regulate its movement by 
the courthouse bell. Students going to chapel 
or their recitations were generally on time, 
or were late only one or two minutes. Every 
railroad station now is furnished daily with 
the precise time by telegraphic signal from 
the central office. The government observa- 

246 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



tory determines it with exactness, and exhib- 
its it every day at 12 o 'clock, noon. 

Many of the students were from country 
farms, and the race of the soil still clung 
to them. But they made good use of their 
opportunities and learned fast. Some of 
them became better scholars than those who 
were trained in the city schools. One of 
them came into the room of the professor of 
languages, when I was present, soon after 
the opening of the session, to make some in- 
quiries about his studies. Seeing two cases 
well filled with books, he remarked, "Why, 
Professor, you have a very large library, if 
this case and that case both belong to you," 
pointing to them. The professor nodded as- 
sent. Just then Professor McCabe entered, 
and after the ordinary greetings and a few 
casual remarks, inquired, "Have you any 
new books?" The professor showed him 
some that were lying on the table, among 
them a copy of "Gil Bias," at the same time 
saying, "Here is a very fine novel." 

247 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



"Novel, is it?" inquired the student. 

"Yes," answered the professor; "it is a 
description of Spanish life and character 
under the supposed adventures of a Spanish 
don;" and seeing a look of bewilderment on 
the student's face, added — "a Spanish gen- 
tleman. ' ' 

"Well, the hardest novel I ever read," 
said the student, "is Locke's 6 Essay on the 
Human Understanding;' and there 's an- 
other novel by ah — ah — ah — what d'ye call 
'im? about — 0, ah- — ah — " The author's 
name and the title of his book he could not 
recall. 

Most of the students who first entered 
were young men who came to the university, 
not boys who were sent. While the number 
was not large, it still shows that the Church 
had need of such an institution for its own 
youth. But the wonder is, not that there 
were then so few, but so many. I still re- 
member the names and faces of many of the 
first students, both of those in the regular 

248 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



college classes and those in the other depart- 
ments. Though comparatively few, however, 
then, and many now, 

"Non, mihi si linguae centum sint oraque 
centum, 

Omnia virorum percurrere nomina possim." 

Some of the young men who first entered 
college as students had been licensed to 
preach, and came to prepare themselves 
more fully for the work of the ministry. It 
was left to them largely to lead the Saturday 
evening prayer-meetings of the students, and 
several of them occasionally went out into 
the country to fill an appointment to preach. 
In winter they would go Saturday evening 
and remain over night with some friend near 
the place where they were to officiate. In the 
summer and autumn days it was easy to 
walk on Sunday mornings three or four miles 
for this purpose ; and after morning preach- 
ing they always remained for dinner with 
some family residing in the vicinity. I re- 

249 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



member one home where these student 
preachers always liked to stay — there were 
several girls in the household. 

Speaking of girls reminds me of a talk 
that the venerable Nathan Emery of the 
Ohio Conference made to the students one 
day at chapel. " Young men," said he, "be- 
ware of the girls. Your business here is to 
pay attention to your studies, not to the la- 
dies. There are two classes of girls that you 
especially ought to avoid — the flirts and the 
coquettes. A flirt is a girl whose heart is 
too big for her head; a coquette is one whose 
head is too big for her heart. Both are 
equally dangerous." And President Thom- 
son supplemented this advice with the ex- 
ample of Dr. John P. Durbin, who, when he 
first entered the ministry, adopted the rule 
laid down by Job : " I made a covenant with 
mine eyes; why then should I think upon a 
maid?" Nevertheless the attractions of the 
Delaware girls proved irresistible to the 
young men. Many of them found their wives 

250 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



here. It was among the Delaware girls that 
I found my own wife.* 

The only holiday of the week was Satur- 
day afternoon. All the students were re- 
quired to attend morning prayer at the 
chapel on Saturdays, where talks were some- 
times made about college life and habits, 
after which the classes were drilled in dec- 

*The Roman poet Naevius in one of his comedies gives this 
description of a coquette. It will fit modern times and Xew 
World manners. The Latin is quaint and archaic : 

" Quasi pila 

In choro ludens datatim dat se et communem facit; 
Alii adnutat, alii adnictat, alium amat, alium tenet, 
Alibi manus est occupata, alii percellit pedem; 
Annulum alii dat spectandum, a labris alium inyocat; 
Alii cantat, attamen alii suo dat digito litems." 

And Horace's picture of a flirt is even more poetic. It is the 
Fifth Ode of Book i, "To Pyrrha," so admirably versed by Milton 
in the meter of the original: 

" What slender youth bedewed with liquid odors 
Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave, 
Pyrrha ? For whom bind"st thou 
In wreaths thy golden hair, 

M Plain in thy neatness?"' etc. 

ZSTo wonder the old veteran uttered his warnings against such 
creatures. The difference is that the coquette bestows her favors 
upon many; the flirt lavishes them on one — for a while. If the 
Hebrew sage were living in these days, he would find more 
wonderful than " the way of a man with a maid," the way of a 
maid with a man! 



251 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



lamation, composition, and rhetoric. Read- 
ing was not then taught, unless incidentally 
— a more important matter than declama- 
tion. All Americans have naturally "the 
gift of gab." There are more good speakers 
than good readers. In fact, few of the fac- 
ulty could read well, though all of them were 
fluent enough in speaking. President Thom- 
son and Professor Harris were the best 
readers. 

The class to which I belonged studied 
Karnes's "Elements of Criticism"— a stupid 
book — but I think we learned more of belles- 
lettres from our instructor than from that 
treatise. President Thomson was a master 
of style. Though not an orator in the tech- 
nical sense, he was a model speaker. He 
knew the art of emphasis — which Professor 
Merrick did not— and he understood the 
proper cadence of his sentences. The charm 
of his eloquence was its rhythm and the 
melody of his voice as well as the elevation 
of his thoughts. 

252 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 

The older students engaged in very few 
athletic sports. The country around Dela- 
ware was then largely forest land — oak and 
beech woods — with some clearings for till- 
age; and there were in their season fruits 
and nuts, which parties of young people some- 
times went out to gather or purchase. Some 
of the students owned guns for hunting ; and 
rabbits and squirrels abounded in the woods 
and the thickets. I once found a porcupine 
on the college grounds, and even saw opos- 
sums. Saturday afternoons were often spent 
by them in the pursuit of game. When Dr. 
Charles Elliott sent his son Eobert to col- 
lege in Delaware, James B. Finley, an old 
associate and friend of the Doctor, gave him 
a rifle. Mr. Finley in his earlier years had 
been fond of the chase, and he often went on 
hunting and trapping expeditions. He nat- 
urally supposed that Eobert would himself 
delight in such sports. He took the pains 
to write to him a letter about the proper 
care of his gun, and told him always to rub 

253 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

it with deer's fat after using it. Then, re- 
flecting that it might be difficult or impossible 
to shoot deer around Delaware, he suggested 
bear's oil (it was then often sold in the drug- 
stores as a dressing for the hair), or beef's 
tallow. Sweet oil, he said, must not be used 
at all, nor hog's lard. Young Elliott some- 
times shot a rabbit or squirrel; but he got 
no deer, bears, foxes, or wolves! 

The favorite recreation, apart from hunt- 
ing, was social or solitary rambling 

"O'er hills, through valleys and by river's 
brink, ' ' — 

sometimes in search of plants for our botany 
recitations, sometimes for minerals to illus- 
trate geology, but more often for, simply, 
exercise. A few of the students, however, 
used to play cricket. We had no football — 
there was no good field in which to kick 
the pigskin — and baseball was not then in 
vogue. Cricket is a manly sport, and re- 
quires some skill, as well as muscular 

254 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



strength, agility, and alertness, both on the 
part of him who bowls the sphere afield and 
of him who defends the wicket. But even 
for this we had little leisure, as our studies 
were hard and the recitations exacting. We 
always had, until our Senior year, four or 
five every day. 

It was a relief from our studies, upon oc- 
casion, to get permission from the president 
to be absent from Friday evening and Sat- 
urday morning exercises, and to make an ex- 
cursion to the Scioto Eiver to fish, and for 
other sport. In such cases our party camped 
out over Friday night. We had no tent or 
cover, except a sheet or blanket which we 
carried with us, and we slept on the dried 
leaves in the forest; as on these jaunts we 
went only when the weather was dry and 
warm. The walk was not over eight miles, 
and we thought nothing of that. We took 
what provisions were needed for two or three 
meals, which we supplemented with what 
fish we caught, broiled on coals of the fire 

255 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



that we kindled. If there was a surplus from 
our catch, we brought it home with us. This 
was a return to primitive conditions of life, 
and a pleasant episode in the monotony of 
school routine. But these were not the only 
expeditions in which we engaged. 

In the hot days of summer it was pleas- 
ant to indulge in a swim in the Olentangy. 
The best place was where the railroad bridge 
crosses the stream just below the old grave- 
yard. It was perfectly secluded for the pur- 
pose, for it could scarcely be seen from the 
covered bridge at William Street, and the 
banks were screened with trees and under- 
growth on both sides. Along the east side 
of the river were tilled fields, the fence cor- 
ners overgrown with blackberry and haw- 
thorn bushes, and very few persons passed 
either in wagons or on foot up and down the 
road between the town and the "Copperas 
Banks. " Nor was the river visible at this 
point from the farm houses in the vicinity. 
And here the water was deep enough to make 

256 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



a good £ c swimming hole." Some of the boys 
who boarded or resided in the north end of 
town went to the mill pond in North Dela- 
ware for a swim in the water, or for a skiff 
ride on its surface; but this spot was more 
exposed to view than the other, except at its 
upper end towards the river ford and the 
little brick schoolhouse near it. 

The Junior exhibitions were held at the 
close of the winter term, just preceding the 
spring vacation. All the pupils of the Jun- 
ior college classes were participants. If the 
number was too great for one evening's ex- 
ercises, two evenings were spent. The music 
was furnished by a brass band from Colum- 
bus, their expenses being paid by the stu- 
dents taking part in the exhibition. We 
had Latin and Greek orations, discussions 
of some question or historical character, 
speeches, essays, and dialogs. On one occa- 
sion a pupil who was on the program for an 
address could not be found. His heart failed 
him at the last moment, and he escaped from 
17 257 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



the room before his name was announced. 
When the president called it, he did not put 
in an appearance. After waiting a few min- 
utes for him to come on the stage, the next 
item on the program was called for. As 
it happened to be music, the band, with a 
sudden inspiration, played "The Rogue's 
March.' ' 

At one of these exhibitions, held in the 
basement of the new William Street Metho- 
dist Church, the room was poorly lighted, 
especially the front platform. Now a pre- 
paratory student, who had his room in the 
Annex of the Mansion House, was the for- 
tunate possessor of a large lard-oil lamp with 
a circular wick and globular glass shade. 
Most of the students at college studied their 
lessons at night by the light of a tallow 
candle only. A few burned lard oil. When 
the exercises of the exhibition were about to 
begin, it was suggested to the owner of the 
lamp to lend it for the occasion to light the 
stage, and he immediately went back to his 

258 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



room to fetch it. He carried it safely until 
just as he reached the front of the church, 
when by some mishap he stumbled with the 
lamp in his hands. It was dashed to the 
pavement and shivered into fragments. But 
the friends of the owner, pitying his misfor- 
tune, contributed the amount — three or four 
dollars — to make good the loss, so that he 
could purchase a new one before the opening 
of the next term at college. 

Though the class distinctions were ob- 
served in the enrollment of the students and 
in seating them in chapel, not so much dis- 
tinction was observed in the recitations. The 
classes were at first very small in numbers, 
and pupils of various grades often recited 
together. Thus with my own class, Sopho- 
mores, Juniors, and Seniors at times took 
the same studies and recited together from 
the same text-books. So, in intermingling 
with each other, pupils of the higher and the 
lower grades were constant companions, and 
in the literary societies membership was not 

259 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



confined to the college classes. Preparatory 
students were just as welcome as any others. 
In their debates and literary exercises, stu- 
dents of all grades joined together. Class 
spirit and class rivalry were at a minimum, 
and the warmest friendships were cultivated 
between members of the highest and the 
lowest classes. 

The text-books which were used in school 
in the earlier days of the institution were 
often poorly printed, and more often poorly 
edited or compiled. Some of them were not 
up to date either in scholarship or informa- 
tion. Thus in one of our Latin books the edi- 
torial notes were mostly on the passages that 
needed no comment, while many of the diffi- 
cult ones were left unexplained. For in- 
stance, the editor thought it necessary to ex- 
plain for students of the higher grade that 
"vestitus montium" signifies the trees and 
shrubbery that grow upon them. What pri- 
mary school boy or girl that ever saw a field 
covered with corn or a meadow with grass, 

260 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



or a hillside shaded with trees, would need 
to be told what the "clothing of the moun- 
tains " means? They would not certainly 
suppose it to mean a covering of snow — even 
if snow-clad summits were in sight. 

The first Latin dictionary of our school 
days was Ainsworth's (or Leverett's), and 
the first Greek lexicon was Grove's (or 
Donnegan's) — both of them unsatisfactory. 
In preparing a Latin oration for the Junior 
exhibitions, or for a graduating address at 
Commencement, the appointed student had 
the English-Latin section of his dictionary to 
refer to; but for a Greek oration there was 
no English-Greek vocabulary in any of his 
lexicons. Schrevelius 's Lexicon contains a 
Latin-Greek section. If the pupil was not 
familiar enough with the Greek words he 
needed, he was compelled to convert his Eng- 
lish first into Latin, and then find the Greek 
equivalent by referring to Schrevelius. 
This, of course, required double work. But 
not a single student owned a Schrevelius. 

261 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



Fortunately a member of the faculty pos- 
sessed a copy, and it was therefore for such 
a purpose in demand. And the professor 
was glad to lend it in the emergency to the 
student who was in need of its help. After 
this double work was accomplished, the dic- 
tionaries had again to be consulted for the 
proper usage of the words, and the gram- 
mars for the right inflections. But, withal, 
our modern Ciceros must have written a good 
deal of "dog Latin' ' and our modern imi- 
tators of Demosthenes a large amount of 
worse Greek. 

The university had no library ; but as the 
agents went around to collect funds or to 
sell scholarships, they picked up a few books, 
none of them very valuable, which were sent 
to the college. These were placed on shelves 
in one of the upper rooms of the old mansion 
building, or Elliott Hall, but scarcely one of 
them was ever read or consulted by any of 
the professors or the students. One of the 
volumes— I don't know the author nor the 

262 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



subject — had been obtained through the so- 
licitation of Bishop Hamline, one of the 
early trustees, in which he recorded the fact 
that it was presented to the university 
"through the munificence" of So-and-so, and 
signed his own name thereto. I had always 
supposed that "munificence" was applied 
only to a gift of something costly or rare, 
not to a donation of one or two dollars' 
worth ! 

When President Thomson went abroad 
to purchase volumes for the university li- 
brary on Sturges's foundation, he desired 
the members of the faculty to furnish him 
lists of books which they would like to have 
for study or consultation in their own de- 
partments. Only a few, however, were sug- 
gested; but large discretion was given him 
to buy for the purpose the best in the mar- 
ket, and from the publishers themselves, so 
far as possible, rather than from the dealers. 
By getting them thus at first hand a large 
saving in prices would be effected. London 

263 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

and Paris were then the chief centers of the 
book world for English readers, though per- 
haps for the continent Leipsic was superior 
to both, as it certainly is now, The bulk 
of the collection as purchased came from 
these cities. The French took the lead in 
mathematics, and most of the works which 
he procured in that science are in French. 
Literature was not well represented, neither 
were history and biography. Geography or 
travel was more complete. For a school boy, 
the most interesting of the leading books 
in these departments may be sufficient; but 
school boys grow into manhood, and if their 
knowledge of history and literature is lim- 
ited to what is gained from one or two books, 
they are apt to have narrow views of men 
and of nations. The seminary method was 
then unknown. To supplement the history 
of the world, Bayle's great Historical Dic- 
tionary is most valuable; but as Bayle was 
a freethinker and a philosopher it was 
thought that an immature mind, in perus- 

264 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



ing his pages, might become tinctured with 
his skepticism. So the original French edi- 
tion was purchased, as none but the profes- 
sors of history and general literature would 
probably be able to read it, or wish to con- 
sult it. They would be out of danger since 
they were well established in the faith. 
There is, however, an English translation of 
Bayle now in the library, in five great folio 
volumes. But I doubt whether one student 
in fifty ever wishes to look into it; and that 
one student is far enough advanced in his 
studies and his religion to think for him- 
self. He, at least, will receive no taint, and 
will not swear in the words of such a master 
as even Bayle. The French edition has 
probably never been opened since it was 
purchased. 

The rooms in the old building where the 
professors had their private apartments, and 
the halls where the recitations were held, 
were all heated with wood stoves, and, of 
course, a large quantity of wood ashes ac- 

265 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

cumulated during the winter months. These 
ashes were dumped in a pile in the rear of 
the building, and when spring came some 
one was employed to remove them. On one 
occasion a teamster who desired them for 
his own use offered to buy and haul them 
away. Accordingly he came to the college 
building and asked where he could find Mr. 
Thomson. On being shown the president's 
office, he went to it, and was about to enter 
without knocking. Finding the door locked — 
Dr. Thomson always kept his door fastened 
when he was not hearing recitations— it oc- 
curred to the teamster to knock. This he 
did, using the toe of his boot against the 
bottom panel. Upon the door's being 
opened, he was considerably startled when 
he saw the president, and stammered out, 
' ' Are you the boss of this here concern?" 

There was only one newspaper printed 
in Delaware when the university was opened 
— the Olentamgy Gazette (now the Delaware 
Gazette). It was Whig in politics, and was 

266 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



issued weekly. The proprietor was Abram 
Thomson, who was not only editor, but com- 
positor, pressman, and clerk. His office was 
in the north end of the building, a frame 
structure, in front of the courthouse on San- 
dusky Avenue, where the county offices were 
located. It was not long until George F. 
Stayman, a competent printer, established a 
Democratic paper, called The Loco Foco. 
Its successor is the present Democratic pa- 
per, the Standard. It was radical in its tone, 
and perhaps livelier than the Gazette. Like 
Thomson, the proprietor was his own printer 
and factotum ; though both of them employed 
in their offices additional compositors. 

A unique personage in the early history 
of the university was the colored janitor, 
George Madison — I am not sure of his last 
name — who resided in the little log hut 
fronting on Henry Street, just east of the 
college building. It was his business to 
sweep the halls, make the fires, carry out 
the ashes, and ring the bell for the morn- 

267 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

ing and evening prayers and for recitations. 
The only bell then owned by the institution 
was the large dinner bell formerly used in 
the Mansion House when it was a watering 
establishment. It was purchased by the 
trustees along with the other furniture of 
the building when they took possession. 
Old George used to stand on the coping of 
the front steps and ring his bell; and if 
he saw any of the students still on their 
way to college, especially if they were his 
favorites, he kept jingling the instrument 
until they reached the chapel door, as he 
knew the services would not commence until 
he stopped. George used sometimes to make 
speeches, and in his way he was quite elo- 
quent. He had a good discrimination of 
character and knew among all the students 
who were his friends. The names of nearly 
all of them he could calk 

The bell he jingled so merrily was after 
a while superseded by a clear-toned church 
bell which Dr. Merrick purchased in Cin- 

268 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



cinnati for $100 and presented to the uni- 
versity. It was mounted on the roof of the 
Elliott Hall, and a student who had his room 
in the building was employed to ring it. Its 
sound went out over the whole town, and 
it could be heard far beyond its limits. 

About the year 1847 there drifted into 
town a harmless lunatic by the name of 
Daniel Crane. He came from Seneca County, 
New York. He was well educated, fluent of 
speech, fond of conversing with the students 
and of making addresses when he could 
gather a group to hear him. His talks were 
mostly on religious subjects, and he was an 
adept in quoting from the Scriptures. His 
texts were pertinent and well chosen. He 
sometimes indulged in poetry, and wrote 
several pieces of considerable merit. Some 
of these he had printed as broadsides and 
sold for five (or ten) cents a copy. One of 
them was on the "Hinton House," then 
erecting on the southeast corner of San- 
dusky Avenue and Winter Street. Another 

269 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



was on the "Sulphur Spring." I call to 
mind only a single stave of the latter, run- 
ning something like this: 

"All nations your afflicted bring, 
Take sprightly beasts, or logy, 
And drink the waters of this spring; — 
It 's good as Saratoga. 

Of the builder of the hotel, George Cad- 
wallader, whom he considered a genius in 
architecture, he wrote: 

"Cadwallader's gigantic mind 
We '11 stamp on golden pages, 
That millions yet unborn may find, 
And read in future ages." 

How Crane supported himself, and what be- 
came of him eventually, I never knew. He 
crossed the pathway of our life as "ships 
that pass in the night. ? ? 

As already stated, the students were re- 
quired to attend the religious services at 
the opening and closing of the school exer- 

270 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 

cises every day, and the roll of the students 
was called each time to mark their attend- 
ance or absence. During prayer nearly all 
of them were accustomed to kneel. It was 
also required of them to attend Church serv- 
ices on Sunday morning and the college lec- 
ture Sunday afternoon; and when the roll 
was called on Monday morning they were to 
answer "Yes" if they were present at both; 
"No" if they were absent; and "Once" if 
they were at only one. As this process of 
calling the roll twice every day consumed 
a great deal of time, especially when the 
number of students became large, a new sys- 
tem for marking attendance and absence 
was devised. Monitors were appointed at 
the opening of each term to note in a pocket 
roll-book given to them those who were 
present or absent each time. The number 
of names in each book was from twelve to 
eighteen ; and as the students were seated 
alphabetically according to their classes, this 
was an easy task. But the roll was called 

271 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



each Monday morning, as usual, by the 
officer of the faculty in whose charge it was, 
Some of the students resided in the conn- 
try, or boarded at very long distances from 
the college, and it was difficult, sometimes 
next to impossible, for them, especially dur- 
ing the winter term, to attend the chapel 
services in the morning, or wait for the clos- 
ing prayer in the evening. Accordingly they 
were excused by the president from attend- 
ance when so desired. The members of the 
faculty were expected to be always present, 
the president conducting the services in the 
morning, and the others, in turn, in the even- 
ing. One morning Professor Harris was 
detained at home until late, and on his way 
to college overtook a student who was also 
on the way. "Why are you not at chapel 
this morning? " asked the professor. The 
student, who had been excused from attend- 
ance, replied, "I don't take prayers this 
session." 

Eepeated absence from chapel services or 
272 



OLD COLLEGE DAYS 



from church subjected the offender to dis- 
cipline, unless he could render a sufficient 
reason for non-attendance. When a certain 
number of absences were recorded against 
a student he was reported to the faculty; 
and the president, on calling him to account, 
might either reprove or excuse him, as the 
case demanded. The morals of the students 
were jealously guarded. 

Of the literary societies and the Greek 
letter fraternities — there was only one in 
my time, the Phi Nu Theta— of their person- 
nel, and their exercises, much might be said, 
as also of the students' prayer-meetings 
every Saturday night, their Missionary Ly- 
ceum, and the religious spirit which per- 
vaded the entire body, both of the faculty 
and the pupils. Then, as now, not a winter 
passed by without a revival. Many here 
gave themselves up to a new life. To many 
here came the call of the Divine Spirit to 
preach the gospel. Many here have had 
their intellects awakened to grasp after and 
18 273 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



to seek new knowledge. Has the university 
fulfilled the expectations of its founders? 
Ask the hundreds who have here become ac- 
quainted with God and have proved what is 
His good and acceptable and perfect will. 
Ask the multitudes in Church and State, in 
professional life or in private business, who 
have occupied or are occupying places of 
honor and of usefulness, and you will have 
your answer! 



274 



XII 



FIRST FACULTY OF THE OHIO 
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY 

So many memorial notices and character 
sketches of the members of the early faculty 
in the Ohio Wesleyan University have been 
published — some of them recently — it may 
seem presumptuous in me to add anything 
further. But no two persons view an object 
in the same light, or at the same angle, and 
I may be pardoned if I give some of my 
personal impressions of them. I shall at 
least "nothing extenuate nor set down aught 
in malice." There are few characters that 
can sit in "the fierce light that beats upon 
a throne" and not exhibit some weaknesses 
or defect. Happy is he who can endure so 
much observation and scrutiny as did our 

275 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



early teachers and disclose so few blemishes 
in their lives. They are men of whom their 
pupils are proud. To know them was itself 
a liberal education. 

The first faculty was elected in 1844. It 
consisted of Edward Thomson, president and 
professor of the moral sciences and belles- 
lettres (though he did not take his seat 
until two years subsequently) ; Herman M. 
Johnson, professor of ancient languages and 
literature; Solomon Howard, professor of 
mathematics ; "William G. Williams, principal 
of the preparatory department, and Enoch 
G. Dial, assistant. The institution was for- 
mally opened in the fall of that year (No- 
vember 13th), with only twenty-nine pupils 
and three of the teachers present. Professor 
Johnson did not reach Delaware until after 
the Christmas holidays, and Professor Mer- 
rick was not elected professor of the natural 
sciences until 1845. He began his work as 
teacher at the beginning of the college year, 
1845-46. 

276 



THE FIRST FACULTY 



Peesident Thomson did not enter upon 
the active duties of his office until the spring 
term of 1846. He was inducted into the 
presidency at the Commencement in the sum- 
mer of that year, when both he and Profes- 
sor Johnson delivered inaugural addresses. 
He was making a good record for himself 
as editor of the Ladies' Repository, and re- 
ceiving a good salary ; but he abandoned this 
position at what he conceived to be the call 
of duty, and came to Delaware to guide the 
nascent enterprise, on the promise of only 
$800 a year. The professors were paid, or 
to be paid, $600. Knowing how important 
it is to set a good example before the young 
men of the college, he gave up the use of 
cigars, in which he was accustomed to in- 
dulge while editor, and no one ever saw him 
smoking tobacco after his removal to Del- 
aware. Most of the Methodist ministers in 
those days used "the weed," and it was not 
esteemed unclerical or unseemly. 

Dr. Thomson was essentially a teacher, 

277 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



whether in the classroom or in the pulpit. 
He had been principal of Norwalk Seminary, 
where he remained six years, until his elec- 
tion as editor, and he knew how to teach. 
His instructions were direct and simple, and 
his explanations clear. In his endeavor to 
be concise he did not become by his brevity 
obscure, like Horace — 

Brevis esse laboro, 
Obscurus fio; 

and no one needed to ask him twice for an 
answer to a question. He showed in him- 
self the difference between a mere school- 
master and a teacher. 

He was a rapid and accurate writer, and 
almost the only corrections he ever made in 
his manuscripts were erasure. He was ac- 
customed to write all the lectures which he 
delivered before the students, and them per- 
haps at a single sitting. He used to say 
that he could think better with a pen in his 
hand. But in the pulpit he seldom read his 

278 



THE FIBST FACULTY 



sermons. They were thoroughly prepared 
beforehand, and he knew what he wanted to 
say. One continuous line of thought ran 
through every discourse, and there were no 
broken or disjointed paragraphs. A phono- 
graphic report would need no editing. He 
never talked about and about a subject or 
multiplied words to fill out time, but directly 
and to the point. His style was lucid and 
picturesque. Though he seldom indulged in 
flights of fancy, he dwelt in the loftier realms 
of reflection, where all is beautiful and true 
and good. 

President Thomson was often amused 
with what is comical, and was fond of humor 
in his familiar conversation with others. He 
appreciated in literature, and often scattered, 
grains of Attic salt in his discourses and his 
writings. He never used a pun, or a mere 
play upon words — that is the lowest kind of 
wit — though he might condone its use in 
others. But he had a keen sense of the lu- 
dicrous, as a single incident will show. Sher- 

279 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



man Finch was one of the leading lawyers 
in town, and on one occasion his wife em- 
ployed a raw girl from the country. "When 
the dinner table was to be set, Mrs. Finch 
told her how many plates were needed; but 
when she went to see how the girl had ar- 
ranged the dishes on the table she found 
there an extra plate. 

"Why, Katy," said she, "I told you only 
four plates were needed for the family. " 

"Yes, ma'am," replied the girl, "but I 
put on one for myself." 

"But, Katy, Mr. Finch does not like to 
have his servants eat at the same table with 
himself. ' ' 

"You tell Mr. Finch," rejoined the girl, 
perhaps nettled at being called a servant, 

"you tell Mr. Finch he may" closing 

her answer with a low and vulgar phrase in- 
dicative of her contempt of social snobbery 
and her sense of personal independence. 

When Mr. Finch returned home from his 
office in the evening, his wife informed him 

280 



THE FIRST FACULTY 



of what the girl said; and as he always en- 
joyed a joke, the next morning when he went 
down street to his office and met a group 
of his friends, among them Professor Har- 
ris, he told the story. At the next meeting 
of the faculty Professor Harris repeated it. 
Dr. Thomson leaned back in his chair and 
laughed heartily. "Well," said he, "it was 
a coarse expression, bnt a sublime senti- 
ment. ' 7 

Most of the lectures delivered before the 
students were preached by the president, 
though occasionally other members of the 
faculty officiated. He had an inexhaustible 
fertility of thought, and poured forth from 
the treasures of a full mind things both old 
and new. He was not a profound scholar, 
but his information was varied and exten- 
sive. He was fond of abstruse subjects, but 
his lectures were easily " understanded of 
the people. ? ' They were charming for their 
style, which was rich and fluent, and no one 
could hear them without satisfaction and 

281 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



profit. President Thomson's sermons and 
lectures were thoughtful, Professor Mer- 
rick's serious and didactic, McCabe's horta- 
tory, and Johnson's critical. Dr. Thomson 
was calm in his delivery, Merrick earnest, 
McCabe impulsive, and Johnson quiet and 
unimpassioned. Thomson taught the love of 
God; Merrick, law; McCabe, grace; and 
Johnson, knowledge. Professor Williams 
had not at that time entered the ministry, 
and Professor Harris too soon removed from 
Delaware, to take the pastoral oversight of 
a congregation. 

Frederick Merrick was professor of the 
natural sciences. His laboratory and reci- 
tation-room was the old kitchen of the Man- 
sion House, in the southeast corner of the 
basement floor, opposite the chapel. In this 
department he was an expert instructor. He 
was ready and familiar with the subjects 
which he taught, and illustrated his lectures 
on them with experiments. His assortment 
of apparatus and material was imperfect and 

282 



THE FIRST FACULTY 



incomplete, but such as he was able to pro- 
cure with the funds at his disposal, and he 
was not always entirely successful in his ex- 
periments. But they were "sufficient to 
show," as he used to say. At any rate, his 
pupils got a fair understanding of the 
methods and results of his work in chemistry 
and natural philosophy. 

Geology was sometimes illustrated by an 
examination of the country around Dela- 
ware, and especially its mineral productions. 
We had no text-book on mineralogy, and the 
professor supplied the lack with oral instruc- 
tion. He had a few specimens of minerals, 
with ores and metals, in the cabinet, and the 
students learned to differentiate them by 
personal inspection. I took notes of his lec- 
tures on mineralogy and wrote them out in 
a blank book after the lessons were over. 
This manuscript volume I think I still have 
somewhere among my papers. One of the 
most surprising statements which he made 
was that one of our familiar gases is a min- 

283 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



eral. We had always thought that every 
mineral is as solid as a rock — like the ever- 
lasting hills which stood around us, and upon 
which we rested our gaze. But we then 
learned that 

" There are more things in heaven and 

earth . . . 
Than were dreamed of in our philosophy/' 

I remember that the professor, in one of 
our recitations in chemistry, put the ques- 
tion to me, whether carbonic acid gas had 
ever been solidified. I thought the text-book 
said it had ; for in my haste, while reviewing 
the lesson, I overlooked the important word 
"not," and read as an affirmative what was 
really a negative. So I answered confidently 
that it had been. Now this was actually the 
fact, though neither our text-book on Chem- 
istry nor our professor was aware of it. My 
answer anticipated the age when it became 
generally known. I did not realize that it 
was to American chemists a prophecy rather 

284 



THE FIEST FACULTY 



than a reality. That recitation was counted 
to me by the professor as a failure ; my credit 
was zero. The college authorities ought to 
go back and mark me 100; not for what was 
then, but for what is now, well known, and 
which I had unwittingly anticipated. 

Until Dr. Thomson in 1846 assumed the 
presidency, Professor Merrick after taking 
his seat as one of the faculty was placed in 
charge. In addition to the classes in his own 
department, he had some of the classes in 
metaphysics — logic, evidences of Christian- 
ity, rhetoric, etc. But I have always thought 
that he showed more aptitude and enthusi- 
asm in the physical sciences than in the in- 
tellectual and moral; at least this was the 
case during my period as a pupil. As an 
instructor he was familiar with the former, 
not so much so with the latter. He could 
not elucidate the obscurities of metaphysics 
with experiments, nor explain them so read- 
ily as he did those of physics. There are 
charms in both the natural and the abstract 

285 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



sciences; the one requires physical research 
and experiment, and will be satisfied with 
nothing less than demonstration; the other 
requires imagination, and will accept prob- 
abilities where there are no certainties. Pro- 
fessor Merrick had no imagination. Facts 
and truths were with him the basis of his 
faith. He did, indeed, adopt hypotheses, but 
only where there was nothing else to account 
for phenomena. 

He held his theological views as a saint, 
and not as a thinker. It would have been 
impossible for him to write a theology; he 
could exemplify it in his life. Practical di- 
vinity was more to him than all Watson's 
"Institutes" and Wesley's doctrinal "Ser- 
mons." He made the Bible his canon of 
living, and he learned to interpret it by it- 
self and experience rather than by human 
glosses. But he did not despise the helps 
of history and criticism. He made use of 
both. 

When the degree of Doctor of Divinity 
286 



THE FIRST FACULTY 



was conferred upon him, he refused to ac- 
cept it, as being opposed to the Lord's com- 
mand, "Be not ye called Rabbi." And after- 
wards, from the same religions scruples, he 
declined to receive the honorary title of Doc- 
tor of Laws. But when he was elected pro- 
fessor of Chemistry in the Starling Medical 
College of Columbus, and the degree of Doc- 
tor of Medicine was given to him by that 
institution, he was compelled to allow it ; for, 
though he was not a physician, and did not 
practice the healing art, he was a teacher 
of one branch of the medical science, that 
of chemistry. We shall not, therefore, be 
at fault if, in referring to him, we name 
him Doctor Merrick. But among his breth- 
ren in the ministry he wanted to be known 
as par inter pares, rather than primus which 
he really was. 

After all, an honorary title is the toy of 
scholarship, though it may be the coveted 
prize of sciolism. The most worthy of it 
regard it the least. Samuel Hanson Cox de- 

287 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

spised the "semi-lunar fardels," as he called 
the title of D. D., and Albert Barnes and 
Henry Ward Beecher are better known 
without them. If "the grand old name of 
gentleman" is borne without reproach, it is 
as high a title as any literary, professional, 
or ecclesiastical one. But a degree earned 
by a student in college is a token of merit. 
It shows that he has completed his course 
of instruction, and by dint of faithful work 
has pushed his way through. It is right that 
he should receive and wear the honors of 
his Alma Mater. 

Dr. Merrick had a deep interest in the 
religious condition of the university and the 
town. There were many unchurched people 
in the place, and especially on the east side 
of the river. After the railroad line from 
Columbus to Cleveland was laid out and 
work on it was begun, a large number of 
employees resided in East Delaware, and 
both they and their children were living or 
growing up little better than heathens. 

288 



THE FIRST FACULTY 



Many of them, however, were Roman Cath- 
olics. With a view of carrying the gospel 
to such persons, he ventured on the experi- 
ment of out-door preaching. Accordingly, 
accompanied by a few friends, he took his 
station one Sunday afternoon in summer on 
the south side of the old railroad depot, on 
the broad platform built for the accommoda- 
tion of passengers and freight. This was 
near the center of the population he wanted 
to reach. He gave out the hymn 

"Hail to the Sabbath day." 

A small crowd was attracted by the singing, 
and when it was finished he offered prayer. 
He then preached a brief sermon on the ob- 
servance of the Lord's day, and the need of 
salvation. These exercises, thus inaugu- 
rated, were the beginning of Church work 
in that part of the town, which has since 
eventuated in the erection of Church build- 
ings and the establishment of Sunday-schools 
and preaching in East Delaware. 
19 289 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 

In like manner Dr. Merrick introduced 
religions services into the outskirts of south- 
west Delaware. A Sunday-school was or- 
ganized for the scattered children, and when 
the congregations for preaching became 
large, a neat building was erected for their 
accommodation. This was constructed 
largely through the efforts of the Doctor, 
who paid towards its erection and named it 
" Faith Chapel.' ■ It is now a regular ap- 
pointment in the Ohio Conference. 

The college grounds were just as nature 
made them when the buildings were put up. 
No grading had been done except, perhaps, 
enough to construct the carriage drives and 
the foot paths, and there were very few shade 
trees in the front. To remedy the naked 
aspect of the premises, Dr. Merrick inter- 
ested the students in planting young sap- 
lings from the forest on the spots which he 
marked, and many of the trees which after- 
wards bordered the walks or ornamented the 
front yard were set out by them under his 

290 



THE FIRST FACULTY 



direction. I think lie had procured them to 
be dug up at his own cost from the wild 
woods and copses around Delaware. There 
were many thickets of undergrowth along 
the main road between the town and Strat- 
ford. He also had a flagstone pavement laid 
about the spring, where nothing but gravel 
and mud had been. 

Dr. Merrick wrote but little, compara- 
tively, for the magazines and other journals 
of the Church. The only volume he gave to 
the public was a small work on "Formal- 
ism. ' ? 

Solomon Howard, professor of mathe- 
matics when the institution was first opened, 
remained only one year. His reputation as 
an instructor was made elsewhere. As pres- 
ident of the Ohio University, at Athens, he 
won success, and approved himself to the 
Church as an earnest, devoted, and capable 
teacher. He was somewhat hasty in his 
temper, but never unjust, and he knew how 
to manage students. His address was pleas- 

291 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



ing, his speech, fluent, his sermons thought- 
ful, and his general scholarship good. He 
did not confine himself to the study of sines 
and tangents, of angles and curves, but read 
literature and theology as well, and kept 
himself informed on all the leading ques- 
tions of the day. 

Hekman M. Johnson, the professor of 
the ancient languages and literature, was 
scholarly, critical, and exact. He was an un- 
tiring student, and it was no uncommon 
thing to find him in his own room poring 
over a Hebrew Bible or an Arabic gram- 
mar, with Gesenius's Lexicon or Freytag's 
Dictionary open by its side. French was to 
him a mental recreation. He became fa- 
miliar with the various dialects of the Greek 
language, and one of the fruits of his labor 
in this department of study is his text-book 
on Herodotus. His scholarship was accu- 
rate and not derived at second hand; he 
studied and investigated for himself. 

In one of his classes in Vergil a student 
292 



THE FIKST FACULTY 



rendered the words of Juno, Ego quce divum 
incedo regina, "I, who walk majestically 
queen of the gods." The professor instantly 
interrupted him: " Where do yon find the 
term 6 majestically V " "Why," said the 
student, "that is included in the word in- 
cedo" This is Anthon's explanation, which 
the student adopted. "Nonsense," replied 
the professor; "it shows the motion of a 
crab as much as of a queen." Since then 
I have never used the term to describe the 
royal stride of Queen Elizabeth or the 
pompous cake-walk of a Negro couple. 

In his classes Professor Johnson required 
word for word translations of the Latin and 
Greek lessons, the better to show the idio- 
matic forms of the languages. But in the 
review exercises he allowed more liberal 
translations; yet the thought of the classic 
writers was with him more than the Eng- 
lish style. He gave special attention to the 
syntax and etymology of these tongues, not 
so much to the prosody. Crosby's Greek 

293 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

Grammar, then recently published, was in- 
troduced as a text-book. It was new in its 
exhibition of the Greek verb. "Had it been 
published abroad," says a judicious critic, 
"there would have been no end to its 
praises." But, however excellent this gram- 
mar is, there are some better, both in the 
matter and the arrangement — though none 
in their treatment of the structure and forms 
of the language. In my own studies I have 
preferred Kuhner and Buttman — the one 
for Ionic and Epic Greek, the other for Attic. 
Both have been rivaled by Curtius, who, not 
so full, is perhaps simpler. But the final 
Greek grammar is yet to be written. 

Professor Johnson was genial and inter- 
esting in conversation, and he had a large 
fund of information from which to draw. 
He had some humor and a good share of 
wit. When Dr. Merrick was finishing his 
house on Oak Hill, where he afterward re- 
sided for so many years, with Gothic win- 
dows and ornamental gables, he invited some 

294 



THE FIEST FACULTY 



of his college friends to go with him and 
see it. After taking them through the build- 
ing, he said, "Come, now, I will show yon 
my finial" — the front pinnacle of the roof — 
pronouncing the word fine-ale. Professor 
Johnson immediately spoke np, "Why, Pro- 
fessor, I always thought you were a tem- 
perance man!" 

In hearing his classes, he never corrected 
a student by abruptly "calling him down" 
and telling him that his rendering was wrong, 
but he used to say, "No, Mr. A., you 've 
hardly got the idea; or, at least, you do 
not express it clearly. You may have ap- 
prehended the main thought, but your read- 
ing does not quite convey it in English." 
At one of the examinations he asked a pupil 
a question about some date in history. The 
answer was widely at variance with the fact, 
and the professor, without naming the date, 
said, "H-a-r-d-l-y the time; a little later 
than that" — and it was three hundred years 
later ! 

295 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

Professor Johnson was familiar with gen- 
eral literature, and had it at his command 
to illustrate and exemplify his instructions 
in the languages. He was fond of poetry, 
and when Longfellow's "Hiawatha ' ' and 
Philip James Bailey's "Festus" were pub- 
lished, he read them with delight. From 
the latter he once quoted with pleasing apt- 
ness the following lines, in a letter to his 
wife, who was on a visit to her early home : 

"Aye, 

My thoughts are ever, love, with thee; 

And thine I know as frequent fly 
O'er all that severs us to me; — 
Like rays of stars that meet in space, 
And mingle in their bright embrace." 

In making one of our Latin translations, 
he once suggested that Cicero's words, Sur- 
sus, deorsns, ultro, citro commeantibus, were 
almost exactly reproduced in English by 
Thomson in his "Seasons" (Summer), 

296 



THE FIEST FACULTY 



where he is describing the motion of a cloud 
of insects in the sun: 

6 'Upward and downward, thwarting and con- 
volved. 9 9 

And in Horace's "Art of Poetry/' in his 
closing lines, where he is describing a bore, 
he thought the Latin order of the words 
was the best also in English: 

"Never ready to let go the skin until 
full of blood, — a leech!" 

Professor Johnson was the first to sug- 
gest and devise the system of cheap scholar- 
ships in the university. His plan was 
adopted by the trustees, and agents were 
appointed by the patronizing Conferences 
to sell and collect the funds for them. One 
mistake was made; that is, in not fixing a 
limit after which they should not be avail- 
able. A few are good in perpetuity, and all 
are good until used. Had the year 1920 
been set as the limit, they would probably 

297 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



have been just as salable, for the purchasers 
wanted them for their children, not for their 
grandchildren and their later descendants; 
and the university would not be hampered 
with them after that date. However, they 
are now nearly all used. The money de- 
rived from them, a few thousand dollars, was 
added to the permanent fund. But the uni- 
versity can not depend on small gifts ob- 
tained in this way. It needs large dona- 
tions and liberal bequests to promote the 
cause of religious education. 

William G. Williams became professor 
of the ancient languages and literature after 
Herman M. Johnson resigned, and taught 
both Latin and Greek until his department 
was divided, when he was made professor of 
Greek. He had also classes in Hebrew and 
Biblical Literature. He was studious from 
his boyhood, and ever had 

"The wish to know,— that endless thirst, 
Which e'en by quenching is awaked." 



298 



THE FIEST FACULTY 



His father had a large library, and many 
of the books were of a doctrinal and theo- 
logical character; and he early acquired a 
taste for Biblical subjects, which developed 
into a lifelong study of the Greek Testa- 
ment, especially Paul's Epistle to the Eom- 
ans. At college he seemed to prefer the 
mathematics, and he demonstrated the the- 
ory of a perpetual motion by an ingenious 
combination of constants and variables. 
But he was also fond of the languages, and 
almost the first article he ever sent to the 
press was while he was still a student at 
college. It was a translation from the Greek 
accompanied with an historical introduction 
and notes. Thus early he began to exhibit 
his critical skill and ability. 

All the helps the first members of the 
faculty needed in their private studies, or 
in giving instruction, they were compelled 
to purchase for themselves, as the univer- 
sity had no funds for books. Professor 
Williams had an arrangement with the 

299 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

Methodist Book Concern in Cincinnati to 
purchase for him at wholesale rates any 
work that he wanted, and he desired to pro- 
cure Home Tooke's "Diversions of Pur- 
ley." Leroy Swormstedt was then Agent, 
and the professor thought it necessary to ex- 
plain to him, in ordering the book, that it 
is not a volume of sports or popular amuse- 
ments, but a treatise on English inflection 
and etymology. For Mr. Swormstedt had 
scruples about buying or selling books of a 
doubtful character, although on an order, 
and refused even to keep Shakespeare on his 
shelves. He thought it would be an encour- 
agement of the drama, and he would not 
thus countenance play-going. Tooke's " Di- 
versions " is of not much value in modern 
philology, but it was in its day a suggestive 
and stimulating work, — and curious. 

I can not speak personally of Professor 
Williams as a teacher, for during my col- 
lege days I had no recitations in his classes. 
I only know that he pursued a system of 

300 



THE FIRST FACULTY 



instruction like that of Professor Johnson, 
who 6 6 set the pace" in the department of 
languages. But his pupils have always re- 
garded him with reverence and affection. 
Bishop Hoss, of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, says of him: 

"In no respect was he ordinary or com- 
monplace. To begin with, he was a great 
scholar. The range of his acquisitions was 
exceedingly wide, almost encyclopaedic; and 
it was not superficial. He had an absolute 
passion for accuracy and thoroughness. 
Slipshod and imperfect knowledge in his 
eyes was no knowledge at all. His intel- 
lectual honesty was so pronounced that he 
looked with undisguised contempt on what- 
ever is shallow or pretentious in learning. 

"He was a great teacher. "What he knew 
he could communicate to others. His class- 
room expositions were marked by crystal 
clearness of statement. To misunderstand 
him was almost an impossibility. His power 
of stimulus and provocation was wonderful. 

301 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



Even the dullest boy woke up under his 
methods of instruction, and those of higher 
endowment often went out of his presence 
ablaze with inspiration. 

"He was a great theologian. From his 
youth up he had brooded persistently and 
devoutly over the mighty issues of life and 
destiny. God, and man's relations to God, 
these were his supreme problem. He was 
not a rash, but a patient thinker. His the- 
ology was not of a vagrant and nondescript 
sort, but was drawn by processes of rational 
interpretation from the Holy Scriptures, and 
stood the test of harmonious correspondence 
to the sanest and soundest conclusions of 
psychology. With the Greek Testament — 
concerning which he felt as Heinrich Ewald 
did, that ' there is nothing good or great in 
the world outside of this little book' — lie 
was as familiar as an anatomist is with the 
human frame. On that foundation he stood 
with both feet." 

His correspondence was extensive, and 
302 



THE FIRST FACULTY 



he wrote much; but his contributions to the 
periodical literature of the Church were not 
numerous. He was slow to satisfy himself 
as to their merit; yet they were well re- 
ceived by the reading public, and some of 
them attracted attention at home and abroad. 
The only volumes which he published were 
"Outlines of English Grammar/' for the use 
of teachers in the institutes before which he 
lectured, and a work on "Baptism," being 
a discussion of the words, "Buried with 
Christ by Baptism.' ' His "Exposition of 
the Epistle of Paul to the Romans," on 
which he had been engaged for several years, 
was not printed until after his death. 

It would scarcely be becoming in me to 
attempt a delineation of his life and char- 
acter. This, if done at all, should be at- 
tempted by persons not so nearly related to 
him by blood. Suffice it for me to say that 
he was fraternal and helpful, not only to his 
own, but to others. He was liberal with his 
means, and in his charities he did not let 

303 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



his left hand know what his right hand did. 
He was loyal to the Church; faithful in the 
discharge of his duties; instant in every 
good word and work; and served his day 
and generation with unwearied attention un- 
til he had rounded out full fifty-seven years 
of professional life in the university. He 
heard his classes as usual on the very day 
that he was stricken down with paralysis. 

Loeeistzo D. McCabe succeeded Solomon 
Howard as professor of mathematics in 
1845. Professor Howard had occupied the 
chair only one year. Professor McCabe was 
young and enthusiastic, and delighted to 
teach. He was affable, somewhat juvenile 
in his manner, and was popular among the 
students and the community. When he 
preached, all were delighted to hear him. 
His style was florid, and though not pedantic 
— he never exhibited any trace of pedantry — 
he was fond of high-flown speech, always so 
captivating to young minds. He constantly 
refined to excess. He "piled on the agony." 

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THE FIRST FACULTY 



But in ordinary conversation, or in giving 
instruction, he was natural and easy. Only 
in his public addresses he allowed his fancy 
to play at riot with his emotions. 

In his private devotions he yearned for 
a richer, fuller, higher spiritual life. He 
had his personal antipathies and predilec- 
tions, as all of us have, and he carried them 
with him to the grave. Yet he practiced 
holiness, subject to the imperfections of this 
mortal coil. He never was satisfied with 
his attainments in grace. He was forever 
endeavoring to grow, and continually reach- 
ing forward to those things that are before. 
He prayed that he might at length appre- 
hend that for which also he was apprehended 
of Jesus Christ. This is shown by his lit- 
tle tract entitled " Light on the Pathway of 
Holiness. " 

When his first wife, Martha Sewall Mc- 
Cabe, died, he mourned for her with gen- 
uine sorrow, and she was worthy of his la- 
mentation. But he cultivated his grief un- 
• 20 305 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

til it became morbid. He even seemed to 
take pleasure in it. Mrs. McCabe was a 
charming woman, gentle, generous, modest, 
and sweet-spirited. She was well educated, 
and in social intercourse was a magnet that 
drew all hearts to her. No one could tell 
a story with finer effect, nor read from a 
book in a happier manner. I once heard 
her read Hans Andersen's story of "The 
Ugly Duck," and the music of her voice I 
seem still to hear — like the words of the 
Seraph in the ears of Adam long after the 
angel had ceased to speak. 

It was the professor's custom to prepare 
and write one sermon every month, both to 
keep in practice as a minister of the gospel, 
and to be always in readiness to preach 
whenever he was called on in an emergency. 
His sermons were rarely textual, but rather 
topical. He once wrote a discourse on So- 
briety, but had not selected a text for it 
until just as he was leaving his room with 
the manuscript in his pocket, to deliver it 

306 



THE FIKST FACULTY 



at the William Street Church. Then, hastily 
looking in the Concordance for the word 
sober, he found a reference to Titus ii, 4, 
which he jotted down on the paper; and, 
without reading it until he rose in the pul- 
pit to speak, he announced his text, and then 
turned the leaves of the Bible to find it. He 
was rather taken aback to read : ' ' That they 
may teach the young women to be sober." 
It was sufficiently pertinent, however, to 
his theme. 

Professor McCabe knew nothing of what 
is called "the Higher Criticism. " He did 
not want to know. He was only a student 
and a follower, not a critic of the Word, 
though he assumed the role of critic in his 
works on the "Foreknowledge of God," and 
"Divine Nescience," which he thought to be 
a complete refutation of the Calvinistic 
doctrine of decrees. His theory is not new. 
It had been broached long years, even cen- 
turies, before his time, and it was only 
through a hint of the subject given him by 

307 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

Professor Hoyt that he undertook the study 
of it himself. This he carried on independ- 
ently. The theory is plausible, but no mod- 
ern Biblical scholar has accepted it. The 
mysteries of Divine knowledge have never 
yet been unfolded by finite intelligence. 

He was not a bookish man, yet he read 
some works with absorbing interest. One 
of these is Bledsoe's 66 Theodicy.' ' Of this 
work he said that it is nothing more than a 
restatement of our Wesleyan theology, with 
the doctrines of which he had been familiar 
since he first studied for the ministry. 

He had no patience with any species of 
irreverence, and was equally intolerant of 
doubt and heresy. He was one morning 
conducting religious services in the old col- 
lege chapel, when, in the midst of his prayer, 
he was annoyed by two or three of the stu- 
dents sitting up and whispering in the rear 
of the room. He stopped suddenly in the 
middle of a sentence and spoke out in a 
loud and peremptory tone of voice, "Stop 

308 



THE FIBST FACULTY 



that noise." Immediately there was breath- 
less silence, and the professor went on with 
his prayer. 

There was at one time some discussion 
among the members of the faculty, and per- 
haps the more advanced students, on the 
subject of Inspiration. No one denied the 
fact; they disagreed as to the mode. John 
McClintock had just published an article in 
the Methodist Quarterly Review, of which 
he was editor, stating that the theory of 
verbal inspiration had never been taught 
until quite recent times ; that it was unknown 
to the fathers of the Church, and that it 
never appeared in any creed or confession 
of the faith either of the Eoman Catholic or 
Protestant communions. This statement was 
doubted by Professor Harris, and an exam- 
ination of the Church histories and the writ- 
ings of the fathers convinced him that it 
was not entirely correct. Accordingly he 
wrote for the Western Christian Advocate 
an article confuting the Doctor's general as- 

309 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



sertion. He did not discuss the subject of 
inspiration itself, but simply the historical 
question, "Is the doctrine of verbal inspira- 
tion modern or ancient?" He showed that 
it is ancient, whether it was or was not gen- 
erally accepted by the Church, or formed a 
portion of Church creed in the early ages 
of Christian history. 

But this led to the study of the doctrine 
itself. Most of the faculty, including the 
president, accepted the theory of verbal in- 
spiration, but especially Professor McCabe. 
He was so extremely orthodox that he was 
inclined to believe all the discrepancies of 
the Word of God to be the direct dictation 
of the Spirit! And to teach and defend 
wholesome doctrine he persuaded President 
Thomson to deliver a lecture on the subject. 
This lecture appears among the Doctor's 
published writings. But the theory can be 
applied only to the Hebrew and Greek orig- 
inals, of course, and not to the English or 
other translations; yet we acknowledge the 

310 



THE FIRST FACULTY 



essential inspiration of the Word of God in 
whatever tongue. 

Like that of all the other McCabes, the 
professor's hair began to turn gray early 
in life. For a long while he was very sensi- 
tive about it, and tried to disguise it, as it 
appeared to him a mark of advancing age, 
and he wanted to look young, as he felt 
young. When at last he was compelled to 
submit to the inevitable, he did not care so 
much about the matter among his intimate 
friends and associates, who knew him well; 
but among strangers the case was different. 
He once went out into the country to preach 
— to Berkshire, perhaps — and after the con- 
gregation was dismissed one of his hearers 
came up to him and, shaking his hand, 
greeted him with, "How do you do, Father 
MeCabe?" The professor's sensitiveness 
immediately returned as he responded, 
"I 'm barely able to crawl, as you see." 

During the first year of the university's 
existence Mr. Dial resigned, and William 

311 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 

L. Hahkis, then pastor of the William Street 
Church, was employed by the Executive 
Committee to hear some of the classes in the 
preparatory department, for the remainder 
of the year. He exhibited so much ability 
and earnestness as a teacher — a character- 
istic trait of his life — that at the end of the 
term the trustees elected him to give his 
whole time to the work of instruction. He 
thus served one year, 1845-46. But the 
North Ohio Conference needed his services 
in the regular pastorate (at least his pre- 
siding elder, John H. Power, so insisted, and 
Mr. Power was a trustee of the university!), 
and he was appointed to Toledo. This was 
for him an unfortunate field of labor, for 
during the year he was attacked with per- 
sistent malarial fever, so that he became 
unable to preach. He was greatly missed in 
Delaware, and Professor McCabe said, "It 
does not look like home with Harris away." 
To save his life, he was compelled to get 
away from Toledo and the influence of that 

312 



THE FIRST FACULTY 



swampy region ; and in 1847 he was stationed 
at Norwalk, where he had formerly been a 
pupil in the seminary. 

In 1848 he was elected principal of Bald- 
win Institute, at Berea, Ohio, and at the 
close of the Conference year he removed to 
that place. Mr. Power was no longer pre- 
siding elder, and could interpose no objec- 
tion. At Berea, Mr. Harris exhibited fine 
executive ability and aptness in teaching, 
even more fully than he had done in Dela- 
ware. He had a taste for mathematics, and 
in that department he was a master. He 
became well acquainted with the transforma- 
tion and resolution of equations, and some- 
times employed new processes. He was 
once showing a class of students how to 
work out a problem involving unknown quan- 
tities. He used a novel method to begin 
with, and a mathematical professor who was 
present, and who prided himself on his at- 
tainments in mathematics, remarked, "You 
can not solve the problem in that way. ' ' He 

313 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



had boasted that he knew every intricacy in 
Algebra — but he did not know the resources 
of his rival. Mr. Harris went on with his 
work qualis ab incepto, and brought it to 
a triumphant conclusion. His method was 
clear, consistent, and consecutive — and the 
mathematical teacher had to retire beaten in 
his own profession. 

But it was in the experimental rather 
than in the exact sciences or in literature that 
he most delighted. He learned by his own 
efforts and study to perform all the experi- 
ments needed to illustrate the chemistry and 
philosophy taught in the schools. To the 
principalship of the Academical Department 
he was called, or rather recalled, to the Ohio 
Wesleyan University in 1851, and was the 
next year elected professor of Chemistry and 
Natural Science. He was once experiment- 
ing with the 6 6 laughing gas, ' ' or nitrous oxy- 
gen, and administered it in the proper quan- 
tity to one of his students. There was great 
exhilaration of spirits in the subject of the 

314 



THE FIEST FACULTY 



experiment; and when, after the influence 
had passed off, he was asked how he felt, 
he replied, "0, I felt as if every hair on 
my head was a jews '-harp." 

Professor Harris was a generous liver, 
and, like "old King Cole" in the nursery 
rime, was "a jolly old soul." He was do- 
mestic in his habits, but was fond of com- 
pany, and in the society of his friends was 
full of good cheer and animation. His laugh 
was hearty and contagious. He had a fine 
presence, a good voice, and was a ready 
speaker. His sermons, though seldom writ- 
ten, were carefully thought out before de- 
livery; and, not being hampered with manu- 
script, he was better able to look his hearers 
in the eye and to get inspiration from their 
countenances. A speaker can thus always 
know when he is " striking fire. ' J He was at 
times eloquent; and even commonplace ut- 
terances were impressive because of his man- 
ner. He was always plain in his discourses, 
seldom indulging in flights of imagination, 

315 



EAELY METHODISM IN OHIO 



and never using embellishments of rhetoric. 
He had little of the poetic in his tempera- 
ment, and it is doubtful if he ever read any 
volume of poetry through. An occasional 
short piece in a magazine or newspaper 
would strike his fancy, and I once heard 
him at his own house read with evident 
relish Thomas Buchanan Bead's poem on 
"The Celestial Army," which was printed 
anonymously in some magazine or review 
which he had received. None of us who 
heard him knew at that time who was the 
author. 

Professor Harris was a pupil at Norwalk 
Seminary when Jonathan E. Chaplin was 
the principal. He supported himself by the 
labor of his own hands, yet applied himself 
closely to his studies. Some of the work 
which he performed was for the seminary 
itself, and when he left the school he in- 
sisted that it was still a dollar in his debt! 
He used to tell how the principal once illus- 
trated to the class in rhetoric the difference 

316 



THE FIRST FACULTY 

between the common and the poetic style. 
"In one of Mrs. Barbauld's Prose Hymns " 
[No. xiii], said the instructor, "occur these 
lines: 6 Child of mortality, whence comest 
thou? Why is thy countenance sad, and why 
are thine eyes red with weeping?' This," 
he went on, "is the poetic style. Now listen 
to the common style: ' Child of mortality, 
where did you come from? What makes 
your eyes look so red, and what have you 
been crying about?' " In literature we 
would naturally look for the finer style; for 
a newspaper report we would expect the 
other. 

Professor Harris had a well-selected li- 
brary, of which he made diligent use; and 
for easy transportation as a circuit preacher 
he had a number of long boxes constructed, 
about twelve inches wide, and of sufficient 
depth to contain a row of books. The lids 
were screwed on, instead of being nailed, so 
as to be easily removed; and these boxes 
piled up on their sides, one above another, 

317 



EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO 



made his book-shelves. This plan is the 
same as that now adopted by some of the 
house-furnishing companies for their "elas- 
tic" or sectional bookcases. He was the 
author of "The Powers of the General Con- 
ference" and "The Eelations of the Epis- 
copacy to the General Conference," both 
works of value. He was also joint author 
with Judge W. J. Henry of a work on "Ec- 
clesiastical Law," having special reference 
to the Methodist Episcopal Church. For 
this he was thoroughly competent, as he had 
studied law before he entered the ministry. 
Though he knew "small Latin and less 
Greek," he became a good Hebrew scholar, 
and prepared a minute Index to Nord- 
heimer 's Hebrew Grammar, which he studied. 

Of the later members of the faculty, the 
successors or colleagues of the original 
seven here mentioned, it is not my purpose 
to speak. Though I have known most of 
them personally, I have had a college ac- 
quaintance with very few of them. Here- 

318 



THE FIRST FACULTY 



after, when some contemporary records his 
memories of strident days at Delaware, lie 
will be able to tell of their qualities and 
style, and "let their own works praise them 
in the gates." 



319 




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